


The Kim Family

by jongnugget



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Comedy, Creepy, Dark Comedy, Halloween, Inspired by Addams Family, M/M, Romance, i just wanted to write exo in goth clothes okay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-10
Updated: 2020-09-20
Packaged: 2020-12-07 14:42:54
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 31,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20977604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jongnugget/pseuds/jongnugget
Summary: It was only supposed to be a fun summer vacation trip for Kyungsoo and his buddies from college. But when their car died in the middle of the forest, and they stumbled upon a dark mansion where the not exactly conventional Kim family lived, it turned out to be so much more."This morning when I woke up and the sky was all dark and cloudy, I knew right then and there that this was going to be a lovely day."





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello yes I'm BACK (as if I ever left lmao)
> 
> THIS TIME, with a fanfic inspired by The Addams Family. It's in no way based on it, I just watched the movies the other day and was reminded of how much I love them. That, and Halloween approaching, really got me in the mood to start a story like this! 
> 
> I've never tried writing such a thing, so I hope you will enjoy it ^^

“It’s official,” Chanyeol’s voice was accompanied by a low grunt as he straightened up, oil on his fingers and sweat on his forehead. “Car’s dead.”

Kyungsoo let out a breath, lowering the flashlight.

“But we can’t be out of fuel,” Baekhyun whined. “We were at a gas station less than two hours ago!”

“Fuel’s not the problem,” Chanyeol sniffed, trying to scratch his nose with his forearm. “I think it might be the ignition switch. Maybe the forest tracks were a bit too much for this car.”

“_Great_,” Kyungsoo scoffed, leaning against the old truck. “Next time we go on a trip, by all means, get a tricycle. It’s gonna be more reliable that this old piece of trash.”

“Hey!” Baekhyun protested. “She’s vintage.”

Sure, Kyungsoo raised his eyebrows in another scoff, if by vintage Baekhyun meant ancient, then she was, yes.

“What if it’s the alternator?”

“Nope. Then she would have switched to the battery.”

“Something wrong with the fuel pump?”

“You’re just saying words now,” Chanyeol sighed, and grabbed the towel the redhead was handing him. He looked sympathetically towards the car that they’d somehow managed to push to the side of the road, before shrugging in defeat. “Whatever it is, we can’t deal with it now. We have no light, no equipment and no snacks.”

Kyungsoo frowned, the hand holding the flashlight lowering as his eyes scanned the dark road.

Only God knew where they were, somewhere in the deep, unknown routes and little streets in the country, far away from civilization, in the middle of a goddamn forest. They had about half a bag of chips left, maybe a few cans of beer, a spare change of clothes, and no cell service.

_ Perfect _.

“We can’t stay here,” he ended up shaking his head and looking towards his friends. Baekhyun raised his head to look at him from under his fringe. “It’s cold, it’s dark, we’re in the middle of nowhere. Not one car has passed by since we got stuck and even if we wait for the morning, we still can’t call anyone. There’s no reception and I’m already on 9 percent battery. No way it survives till the morning.”

“I have a charger?”

“Great thinking,” Kyungsoo squinted at Baekhyun. “But the engine’s not working so your charger is about as useful as you are right now.”

Baekhyun made a face at him and Kyungsoo just sighed again, slumping against the car. Chanyeol was still rubbing the black oil off his hands, as he shrugged.

“Kyungsoo’s right. There’s no point in staying here, I guess,” he said with an oddly relaxed face. “We passed by a sign about ten minutes before the car died. About some small town, twelve miles from it. We shouldn’t be far from it now, maybe one mile? Two?”

Kyungsoo nodded slowly.

“We can walk there.”

“What…_walk_?” Baekhyun let out a huff. “Am I the only one who hears weird animal sounds and howling? _We’re in the middle of a forest_. And it’s _midnight_!”

Kyungsoo just shrugged, reaching inside the car to grab his backpack.

“You can stay here if you want,” he shot his friend a look as he grabbed the torch again, pointing it in his face. Baekhyun blinked away from the light, before shoving Kyungsoo’s arm away and frowning. “I mean, wouldn’t those animals be disappointed if they come here and find no feast?”

“Asshole.”

* * *

The paths in the forest they walked on after the old looking sign indicating the direction of the town just seemed to become smaller and narrower. Darker and creepier with every step they were taking. The screeching of owls in the deepest parts of the forest were echoing until they reached them.

Every sound of a twig breaking under their feet or leaves rustling had Kyungsoo shooting looks all around the darkness surrounding them.

And then there was light.

A faint shimmer of a distant light in front of them that had Chanyeol exclaiming, leading them forward with an excited roar.

They walked for roughly five more minutes until Kyungsoo noticed the forest was thinning out – not so many trees anymore, he could see the night’s sky and stars. He could see the sharp crescent that the moon was, shimmering eerily in the calm dark.

“This doesn’t seem right,” Baekhyun was the first one to say in a hushed tone once they escaped the forest and they could finally clearly see the source of the faint light.

It was a flicking light from a small window on a massive, black house. A mansion even, considering the high, rusty steel fences surrounding the grounds. The gate in front of them was massive – rusty and creaking under Kyungsoo’s fingers when he pushed it open lightly so they could enter.

His eyes travelled back to the mansion – it was seemingly old, with gothic architecture, the walls were black, the building almost merging with the night. If it wasn’t for the darker shadows and that one flickering light, Kyungsoo would have missed it.

“Come on,” Kyungsoo said breathily. “Someone’s home.”

He was about to take a bold step forward, but fingers wrapped themselves around his elbow and held him in place. He turned to raise an eyebrow at Baekhyun.

“Hello? Am I the only one who’s seen horror movies?”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Chanyeol let out a deep chuckle. “It’s either this or we wait in the car until someone shows up on that stupid road. That could be days.”

“I’d rather stay out there for days instead of get murdered by some psychos who live in a mansion in the middle of nowhere!” Baekhyun set his jaw. “This is literally like the house from The Woman in Black.”

“Never saw that,” Kyungsoo mumbled, fumbling with the flashlight.

“No? Well let me tell you, _it doesn’t end well_.”

“Come on, Baek,” Chanyeol said with a teasing grin. “You almost look scared right now. Are you?”

“Of course I’m not scared,” Baekhyun scoffed, throwing a dirty glare towards the taller man. As if to prove his point, he just furrowed his eyebrows, the moonlight throwing weird shades on his face. “I thought you wanted to go. Go then.”

The closer they got to the mansion, the more Kyungsoo realized just how _huge_ it was. The closer they got, the better he could see the towers and the intricate details on the façade. The better he could see the chipped walls and the dead flowers in the yards.

It looked majestic – beautiful, eerie – but it also looked old and winded, _abandoned_.

“Are you sure about this?”

Kyungsoo flashed a look towards Baekhyun and the way his eyes were fixated on the wolf-shaped door knocker. He shrugged, as he reached out to hold it.

Before he could even bring it down, though, before he could even knock, the door moved underneath his fingers and he let go of the knocker, as if burned by it.

He blinked in surprise when the door opened with a loud and lasting creak, faint light streaming from inside the house, like a halo around the head of the man standing in front of them.

Kyungsoo felt his breathing becoming a little shallow at the sight of the man – he was looking at him with a very straight face. His hair was pitch-black, darker than the black clothes he was wearing. The black lace on his collar was contrasting deeply with his pale skin.

His eyes were lined with black, sharp and inquiring, just like a cat’s.

Kyungsoo closed his mouth, realizing that he was blinking way too quickly, eyes shifting towards the door knocker for a millisecond. The man standing in front of them didn’t seem to miss his gaze, because he too looked at the door knocker, before tilting his head a little as he looked back towards Kyungsoo.

His stance was perfect – straight, sophisticated – as he vaguely and elegantly waved his hand towards Kyungsoo’s hand.

“We saw the flashlight,” he said quietly in a kind of mysterious tone, eyes moving from Kyungsoo to his friends. That explained the creepy opening of the door without even a knock. Kyungsoo almost sighed out in relief, but then he noticed those sharp cat-like eyes moving back to him and he held his breath. “A lot of trespassers in the area.”

There was something eerily scary about this man, even if he was just about as tall as him and Baekhyun, with a small frame and a cute little face. Something about his gaze, however, and the fact that he was showing no emotion whatsoever had Kyungsoo all innerved. 

“No! We didn’t trespass,” Kyungsoo finally managed to let the words out, shaking his head erratically. He looked the man in front of him just straightening up even more, eyes flicking towards the direction of the gates. _Shit_. “I mean, we technically did! But we’re here because we need help.”

“Help?” the man repeated the word, the smallest hint of surprise sneaking in his voice as his eyes flashed between the three of them again. Something akin to realization settled in his gaze after a few seconds, as he lazily raised a thick eyebrow. “Tourists.”

Kyungsoo wasn’t sure if it was a statement or a question, but he ended up nodding nonetheless.

“Our car died down the road,” Chanyeol said, his usual enthusiasm a little dimmed as he chuckled awkwardly. “We didn’t know where we were, and we had no reception, so when we saw your, uh-…your _house_, we thought that maybe we could…ask if we can maybe use your phone?”

Kyungsoo noticed how Chanyeol’s voice died out at the end, as the man with the cat-shaped eyes gave them yet another assessing look.

Then something even scarier happened.

_ He smiled. _

A little smirk, pulling on his stoic lips, not reaching his eyes, as he simply opened the door wider.

“Why didn’t you say so sooner? Please, _do_ come in.”

Kyungsoo felt Baekhyun tugging at the back of his T-shirt, but he paid no mind to him. It’s not like they could turn around and walk away now anyways. That would be rude. Even more so than trespassing and they’d already done that.

If Kyungsoo was a little alarmed by the sight of that creepy man opening the door for them, he became even more alarmed once they walked into the mansion.

As expected, the architecture was just as impressive as it was on the outside. Truly marvellous and unique – but it was all run down, the dark colours dominating, spider webs in the corners and swaying like decorations from the dark chandelier. The candle holders on the walls had dried wax hanging from the metal like icicles.

Kyungsoo gripped a little harder on his backpack’s straps, as he shifted from foot to foot, trying to stay as close to Chanyeol and Baekhyun as he could.

“This way,” cat-man said, his voice and steps echoing around the spacious house, as he led them to the side.

The wooden floor was creaking under their feet at some places, and Kyungsoo turned his head every now and then to check that Chanyeol and Baekhyun were, in fact, walking right next to him.

At the end of the small corridor, Kyungsoo saw flickering lights again.

It looked like a kitchen. There was a sink, what looked like a stove, a fridge. Everything was black. From the black shelves to the black curtains, even the large table in the middle of the spacious room.

And the two men sitting on the table, too. Just like the one who had opened the door for them.

Both clad in black clothes, both sitting straight on their chairs, one of them with his legs crossed elegantly. The other was resting his hand on the chair rest, a cigar between his fingers. They were playing chess, and only looked up from the board when they heard people walking in.

Kyungsoo stopped in his spot and watched as the man who’d opened the door for them kept walking forward, rounding the table.

The man with the cigar reached his free hand out and cat-man caught it. Kyungsoo blinked quickly when the other kissed it gently, and when the one who’d opened the door seated himself in his lap like it was the most natural thing to do. The kisses moved from his knuckles up to his neck, to his jawline and cheek, before he finally turned his head and their lips moulded together.

Kyungsoo looked away, shifting awkwardly from leg to leg and blinking his surprise away.

When he looked back, he realized that all three men were looking at them with the same straight expression, the same one they’d seen moments ago at the door.

Kyungsoo vaguely thought that they looked like rock stars, except, more sophisticated. 

“Lost travellers,” the man from the door said quietly, his hand resting on the other man’s shoulders. “Their car broke down the main road.”

“Fascinating,” the one with the cigar said, his eyes burning holes in them. He did not sound, in the least bit, fascinated.

“We were wondering if we could use the phone?” Chanyeol asked, his voice more hushed than before – almost like he was afraid to let his booming voice out in this creepy house.

The man with the cigar vaguely pointed towards the wall and Kyungsoo almost choked out in relief when he saw a phone hanging from the wall. Chanyeol stumbled over his words and bowed his head lightly as he headed to get the phone.

Kyungsoo could feel Baekhyun tugging on his shirt again and he turned just in time to see the third man untangling his legs and standing up from his chair. It creaked loudly in the silent kitchen. His skin was just as pale. He looked like a porcelain doll, with his pitch-black hair and his black blazer.

His eyes flashed towards Chanyeol when his voice started resounding in the kitchen. Kyungsoo sighed. _Thank God_, someone had picked up.

“What brings you to these parts?” the man in front of him asked calmly, his voice lower than that of the first man. Kyungsoo vaguely flashed his eyes to see the couple on the chair sharing light kisses again. The man with the cat eyes was still very intently staring at them. The one with the cigar, that was now burning out in his fingers completely forgotten, was placing kisses on his skin.

“Well,” Kyungsoo gulped down the lump that was blocking his throat. “We didn’t mean to end up here. We were on the highway travelling to the beach- “ 

“The…beach?” the man standing in front of him asked, unable to hide the hints of disgust creeping in his voice.

“Uh…yeah. But we decided to take some of the smaller roads, because we’d heard the nature in the area is really beautiful and…long story short. Guess the car couldn’t handle the rough terrain.”

Chanyeol’s voice in the background was once again the only thing resounding in the silent kitchen.

Kyungsoo was about to say something – anything, really, to break the silence. But Chanyeol beat him to it.

He lowered the phone, his wide eyes flashing around the room, towards the three odd hosts.

“Sorry, they need to know where to send the rescue car? Any…pointers I could give them?”

“Tell them it’s the main road down by the Kim Mansion,” the man with the cigar said, a little ominous smile on his face. “They’ll know where it is.”

Kyungsoo’s eyes flashed towards Baekhyun when he heard a sigh of relief. He almost smacked him.

Then again, he also felt the same way. At least now people knew where they were. His eyes flashed towards the three weird men in dark clothes.

“Okay, alright. Thank you very much,” Chanyeol said, deep voice morphing into a sigh as he hung up the phone. He turned to look at them then and Kyungsoo raised his eyebrows expectantly. “They can send a car tomorrow morning.”

Kyungsoo’s lips twisted in distaste. The morning?

“They can’t come now?” 

“No. It’s getting too late, they can’t work in the dark.”

“Alright,” Kyungsoo nodded, fingers tightening around his backpack’s strap again. He looked towards the three men. “Um, thank you. Thank you for letting us use the phone.”

“Of course.”

Well. That was nice, Kyungsoo supposed as he awkwardly smiled.

“We should head back to the car,” Baekhyun said with a strained laugh.

“Nonsense,” the man standing in front of them exclaimed. His face was still very much stoic. “It is cold outside. Judging by the sky, it will rain too. You can stay here for the night, if you wish.”

_ I think the fuck not _, Baekhyun’s eyes seemed to scream at him when Kyungsoo turned to look at him. Chanyeol only shrugged helplessly and cluelessly.

“It _is_ cold,” was Chanyeol’s only input as he shrugged. Baekhyun looked at him like he was the biggest traitor in the world.

“We don’t want to be a bother,” Kyungsoo said cautiously, and the man in front of them just smiled a little. His little smile was just as scary as that of the other man.

“You’re not,” he said with his eerie voice. “It has been a very long time since we’ve had guests.”

Kyungsoo’s eyes shifted around the room, at the dark walls, at the creaking sounds of the window stills. He couldn’t possibly imagine why.

“I believe introductions are in order,” the man said and Kyungsoo snapped his focus back on him. “My name is Kim Junmyeon. This is my brother Jongdae, and his husband, Minseok.”

Okay, husbands. That explained the kissing, Kyungsoo supposed.

And then his brain snapped again. He supposed it would be nice to introduce himself too. It would be the polite thing to do, especially when strangers, albeit strange and creepy, were helping them.

“Uh, Kyungsoo. Nice to meet you,” he reached his hand out and Junmyeon only looked down at it, before hesitantly taking it. his palm was cold, and his fingers didn’t linger on his. This was the most awkward handshake Kyungsoo had ever had, so he hurried to end it. He used his hand to point towards his friends instead. “That’s Chanyeol. And that’s Baekhyun. We’re uh…friends.”

The nod of Junmyeon was faint and slow, before he eventually brought his hands together. That same dry, sort of creepy smile appeared on his lips.

“Very well. You must be exhausted,” he said, hand spreading out in invitation towards the door. “Let me show you to some of our guest rooms.”

* * *

After Baekhyun’s little theatrical number and insisting, they got to convince the host that it was ‘really alright’ and ‘completely fine’ for them to stay in one room together.

It was a very large, very spacious room. There was a double bed with a black canopy curtain. There was a couch at the base of the bed. Kyungsoo dropped his backpack on it as soon as they were left alone in there.

“Are you two fucking insane?” Baekhyun turned to them with a hushed whisper. He looked borderline hysterical. “What are you thinking?”

“Chill, Baek,” Chanyeol said as he sat down on the bed.

“They look like a bunch of homicidal maniacs, so no, Park Chanyeol, I will _not_ chill.”

“Well that’s rude,” Kyungsoo shot him a look. “They’re just…a little weird. But they were kind to us. They let us use the phone and they let us stay here for the night.”

Baekhyun was grumbling something about not going to sleep the entire night under his breath and Kyungsoo just plopped down on the black couch, eyes burning when he closed his eyelids. He was so tired.

“If we get murdered in our sleep, it’s on you! I’ll find you in the afterlife and I’ll kill you.”

“Don’t you know?” Kyungsoo cracked one eye open to look at Baekhyun. “The cautious one always dies first in horror movies.”

Baekhyun made yet another face at him, before Kyungsoo closed his eyes again with a little sigh.

Sleep started creeping under his heavy eyelids almost immediately, tense shoulder relaxing as he finally got to rest.

* * *

A loud thunder woke him up.

Kyungsoo opened his eyes at once, a little disoriented by everything black and dark in the room surrounding him. There were shadows flickering in the corners, loud creaks and wails from the old walls of the mansion.

Right.

He sat up on the couch with a little grunt, as he looked towards the window. The consistent tapping on the window, it was rain.

Kyungsoo let out a quiet hum as he stood up from the couch, the wooden floor creaking under his feet. He threw a look towards the large double bed. Chanyeol was lying on his side, Baekhyun was occupying most of the bed, mouth agape as he was snoring lightly.

“Not sleeping all night, my ass,” he scoffed at the redhead, turning his head back to the window. It was still a dark night outside, and it was raining hard. He checked his phone quickly – barely at 4%. It was almost four in the morning.

He pursed his lips, realizing why he had woken up.

His mouth felt dry, and his lips were also dry. He needed some water.

He contemplated for a few seconds going out of the room by himself. He truly didn’t want to. He’d never admit it to Baekhyun, but he was also creeped out by the family living in the mansion.

But he also knew he wouldn’t be able to catch another blink of sleep if he didn’t get some water _now_, so he ended up sighing.

He tried to be as silent as possible as he slowly walked towards the door, but the wooden floor was creaking under his every step anyways. The hinges of the door let out a wail when he opened it, and he threw his head back to look at Chanyeol and Baekhyun. They were still peacefully sleeping, unbothered.

The hallways were long and just as creepy as they were a few hours ago when Junmyeon showed them the room. The only light was coming from several largely spaced out dimmed lights. Kyungsoo almost regretted not bringing his flashlight.

He tried to walk quickly, he had a purpose and that purpose was only to get some water.

He somehow managed to find the kitchen – the hallways were long and the stairways were twisted, but at least everything was mapped out easily. He sighed in relief when he saw no one there, as he walked closer to the sink.

The pipes made a loud sound when he started the water, and it took about four seconds before water finally streamed out of the faucet. Like people barely ever used this sink.

An old house, even older installations, Kyungsoo supposed as he looked around.

It’s like the house was alive – it’s like the walls and floors were speaking with every creak, every grunt and hiss.

He dipped down and drank directly from his hands. He splashed his face with water before he turned it off eventually.

Kyungsoo wanted to hurry up and get back to the room where Chanyeol and Baekhyun were. He wanted to possibly get another few hours of sleep, and then he wanted to get away from here as fast as possible.

The beach was waiting for them a hundred and fifty miles down that wretched highway, and he couldn’t wait to get there.

He pulled his jacket closer around himself. It really was getting cold that late in the night, even inside the house. The rain didn’t help.

He was about to go back his way, but the moment he stepped out of the kitchen, he almost jumped back in surprise, his voice getting caught in his throat.

“_Jesus!_”

There was a man standing in the middle of the staircase, half hidden by the shadows, but very much present. Peering down at him with an unreadable expression.

His hair was a dark shade of blond, and it was flying messily in all directions. Even so, it didn’t make him look sloppy, it made him look scarily beautiful, with his full lips and big eyes. His expression was just as stoic as the expressions of everybody else Kyungsoo had met earlier.

He was wearing black fitting clothes, some silver decorations shimmering under the faint light of the hallway’s lights on the sides of his pants. He had rings on his fingers, the metal of them clanking against the handrail of the stairs.

“No,” he said, and his voice was low and deep, husky. Flat. “Jongin.”

Kyungsoo blinked quickly as he tried to regain his ability to breathe just in the same time the man on the stairs, Jongin, started walking towards him. His movements were elegant, hand gliding down the wooden handrail. The more he walked, the more light his face caught.

“I’m sorry,” Kyungsoo blurted out quietly when he realized that this man was probably also living here. “I just came downstairs for some water. I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“I was not sleeping,” the man said, tilting his head back a little, his jawline sharp and strong. He threw Kyungsoo yet another unnerving, assessing look. “Yes…my brothers did mention that we have guests.”

Alright, yes, Kyungsoo sighed. Brothers. No wonder this man looked just as creepy as the rest of the family. It made sense now.

His mind did not linger on the fact that this man – Jongin – just said he wasn’t sleeping even if it was 4am. It didn’t even linger on the fact that he was still staring at him.

He just wanted to get back upstairs to his friends.

“They did not mention, however, that our guest was of such incredible beauty.”

Kyungsoo felt his shoulders tensing as he forced himself to not step back. He also felt his mouth drying again under that hard gaze of the man in front of him.

He was smiling, but his smile looked somewhat ominous. Insanely handsome, yes, but frightening.

“_Ha_,” he ended up letting out a breath, a little laugh at how ridiculous this situation was. “Thank you.”

Jongin just smiled again, the lights throwing dancing shadows on his face. The house was still very much alive, the rain and the thunders were loud outside. Kyungsoo’s fingers tightened around his jacket.

“I should…uh…I should head upstairs. Again, sorry for making noise,” Kyungsoo tried, moving past the man, trying to leave as much space between them as possible. Jongin just followed him with his eyes. “Good night!”

“Good night…?” his voice trailed off in question and Kyungsoo stopped in his step again, contemplating for a millisecond, before replying.

“Kyungsoo.”

Kim Jongin stretched out his hand then, and Kyungsoo hesitantly took it. He expected a handshake, as awkward and quick as the one with Jongin’s brother Junmyeon.

What he didn’t expect was for Jongin to take his hand from below and bring it up to his face.

He kissed his knuckles then, plush lips lingering on his skin for a few moments as their eyes connected and Kyungsoo’s breath hitched in surprise again.

“_Enchanté_.”

Jongin was still holding on to his hand lightly even when he raised his hand, eyes never looking away from his, not even blinking.

“Your hand is cold,” he said, and then his lips twitched into another smile. Wider, even more ominous than the previous one. “I like that.”

Kyungsoo forgot for a few seconds how to breathe. The way this man was looking at him, the way he was speaking – low-voiced, incisive, subtle. His smile was ghostly, offset by the black of the dark shadows surrounding him. His hair like a diabolic halo, his eyes sultry and remote. A ruined beauty.

Kyungsoo’s heart was thumping loudly in his chest and he was pretty sure it had something to do with this terrifying situation – a stranger, an _odd_ stranger, kissing his hand in the middle of a dimly lit hallway in a faraway house, the rain making the old walls wail even stronger.

A thunder resounded outside and Kyungsoo blinked in surprise, slipping his hand out of the other man’s fingers momentarily.

“_Right_,” he ended up mumbling and taking a step back up the stairs and awkwardly motioning towards the second floor. “I, uh…I should go. Good night.”

“Sleep well, _Kyungsoo_.”

He turned around after a short nod, the lump forming in his throat again, as he hurried up the staircase. He did not turn around, but he could still hear the rhythmical clank of a ring against the wooden handrail, he could still feel the burning eyes of the other man on himself until he disappeared down the hallway.

He didn’t even realize he was breathing this heavily until he was back in the room, the door tightly shut behind him. Chanyeol and Baekhyun hadn’t moved an inch, the room was still filled with the sounds of the old house and the storm.

Kyungsoo rested his head back against the door, placing a hand over his chest.

“_What the fuck_,” he muttered quietly under his breath, giving himself a few moments to relax before finally heading back to the couch.

Even though he drank water, he couldn’t catch a blink of sleep that night.

Instead, he kept looking at the window, at the raindrops cascading down the glass and the shadows that were falling on the walls, reminding him of unruly blond hair and sharp brown eyes.

The skin on his hand was burning.

* * *

“Let’s get out of here,” Baekhyun said as soon as they gathered their things and put their jackets on. Kyungsoo reached out to pat his shoulder as he opened the door.

With the morning and the sun high up in the sky, the light was streaming inside the dark house. He could now clearly see the intricate ornaments on the old carpets, the dark paintings on the walls, the decorations hanging everywhere – knives, swords, shields.

He felt shivers up his spine as he rushed his friends downstairs.

Kyungsoo felt shivers up his spine when he heard noises from the kitchen. He threw his friends a look, as they slowly walked inside.

All four people they’d met last night were in there. All once again dressed in black, once again looking like a complete rock band.

In the light, they looked even creepier.

It was summer outside, it was light. Yet they were dressed like they were heading to a funeral. Kyungsoo didn’t want to jump to conclusions. He only knew he felt ridiculous with his shorts with palm tree prints on them.

“Ah you are awake,” Jongdae, the brother who had barely spoken the previous night said with a surprisingly light voice. His eyes were just as disinterested as they were before. His hand was on the table, playing with the fingers of his husband Minseok. The man was staring at them with his cat-like eyes. “Late risers. Care to join us for breakfast?”

Kyungsoo’s eyes flashed towards the table. There were plates set for all of them, he did a quick count. The table was filled with beautiful dishes – definitely not breakfast meals. Everything looked delicious, mouth-watering.

He made the mistake to look to the fourth person on the table then.

Kim Jongin was staring straight at him, a hint of that ominous smirk on his lips as he swirled ruby red wine in his glass. There was something about the way he moved forward to lean on the table, something so graceful that it felt almost painful for Kyungsoo to look away from him.

“We should really go,” Chanyeol said with a smile. “Thank you so much for everything, you’ve been very kind to us. If there is any way to repay you for your kindness…?”

Kyungsoo startled a little when he heard the scratching sound of wood against wood. He blinked towards Jongin when he pushed his chair back and stood up, approaching the window. He wasn’t even looking at them, just reached out to push the window open.

Kyungsoo let out a breath when it opened, and he saw the rain still pouring outside.

Baekhyun had a little displeased frown on his face, like he wasn’t looking forward to walking through the muddy forest back to their car in this rain. Chanyeol didn’t look thrilled either.

Jongin, however, was smiling that creepy smile as he leaned against the window and barely looked towards them.

Towards him.

The sky behind him was dark and cloudy. The rain was never-ending. He could hear thunders in the distance.

“It’s lovely outside, don’t you think?”

Kyungsoo curled up into himself, not sure whether to look at the man or not. He felt almost too scared to look directly into his eyes.

Instead, he looked out the window at the pouring rain. Was it weird that he could hear no sound of irony or sarcasm in that deep voice?

“I know, right?” Jongdae said, throwing a look out the window with a mild smile. “When I woke up this morning and saw the storm, I knew it was going to be a great day.”

Kyungsoo tried not to furrow his eyebrows – a feat Baekhyun was failing at.

“But I’m afraid you can’t leave,” Junmyeon said and Kyungsoo blinked towards him then. He was also holding a glass of wine, reaching down to grab a piece of cheese from the entrée tray on the table. “Not yet, anyways.”

“What...what do you _mean_ we can’t leave?!”

Kyungsoo reached to the side to hold Baekhyun’s wrist, to try and calm him down before he’d get hysterical.

“The rain,” Minseok said simply.

“We have umbrellas.”

Minseok’s smile was just as dry as before, and Jongdae stifled an unentertained chuckle into the skin of his husband’s hand as he brought it up for yet another kiss.

“When you left the highway and entered the small-town roads,” Junmyeon started speaking, leaning back against the table, staring at him with his calculating eyes. His pitch-black hair was just as unruly as Jongin’s. “You must have passed the river bridge, no?”

“That’s right,” Chanyeol confirmed with a little nod.

“The river floods at every harsher rainfall, let alone a storm of this size,” Junmyeon explained and Kyungsoo held his breath. “When storms like this happen, the roads get flooded, there is no way in or out of the routes. I’m afraid that road assistance can’t get through those bridges right now to…assist. They would drown.”

There was absolutely no compassion or remorse in his voice as he explained and Kyungsoo felt a pang in his chest. He watched Junmyeon raising the wine back to his lips, the ruby red of the drink contrasting deeply with the porcelain white of his skin.

“And I’m afraid even if you do manage to fix your car, there’s no way out. The roads are blocked on both sides of the river. If you do try leaving, then _you_ would drown.”

Kyungsoo set his jaw as he looked back to his friends. Baekhyun looked paler than he ever had in his life before. Chanyeol had a deep crease between his eyebrows.

“Hold on, how do we know the storm was that bad? What if the roads are still clear?!”

Kyungsoo blinked back towards the family after Chanyeol’s somewhat rational question.

It was Jongin who moved first. Towards the light switch. He pushed it.

And nothing happened.

He directed his gaze towards them, face unreadable and mysterious.

“Electricity’s gone. And it will be gone until the flood drains,” his eyes flashed towards Chanyeol that. He didn’t seem in the slightest bit entertained or interested when he raised an eyebrow. “That, and they still haven’t called you. Have they?”

Chanyeol breathed in, but no sound came out of his lips then. Instead, Kyungsoo watched his shoulders slumping down, hand anxiously fiddling with the phone in his hands. When their eyes met, his friend shook his head and Kyungsoo wanted to scream.

He felt Baekhyun’s fingers once again twisting around the fabric of his shirt, tugging on it lightly.

“How long before we’re good to go?”

Jongdae’s eyes were assessing as he threw a look out the window again.

“With such a _marvellous_ storm, it could take about a week.”

“_A week?!_”

No way in or out for a week, roads flooded. Kyungsoo threw a frantic look towards his friends. They looked just as shocked as him, just as helpless.

“So,” Junmyeon asked, as he finally sat down on the table, picking up yet another cheese cube. “_Now_ would you care joining us for breakfast?”

A whole week stuck in here with those weirdos. Kyungsoo’s lip quivered a little as he saw Chanyeol shrugging in defeat, before taking a step forward towards the table.

He didn’t know if he wanted to trust that they really were kind and simply weird, of if he preferred drowning in the overflooding rivers.

But when even Baekhyun hesitantly moved forward first, Kyungsoo knew he had no choice but to join his friends.

He sat down cautiously, under the gazes of those four odd men. He tried not to curl into Baekhyun when he heard the chair next to him scraping against the floor.

He threw a cautious look to the side, to where Kim Jongin was sitting next to him, still swirling ruby red wine in that glass.

“The weather really is lovely,” he said, sharp and dark eyes moving away from the pouring rain and towards him instead. His plush lips pulled in a half-smile, just as haunting as before. “Oh, _mon ami_, we’re going to have _so_ much fun.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we go, Chapter 1! I don't know how long this fic will be, I thought initially it would be a twoshot but I think it might turn out a bit longer than that~   
Also. I don't know why I got Jongin speaking French. But. He is. I guess dfjghdghgh  
Anyways. Let me know what you think of this AU, I'd love to hear your opinions so leave me a comment and feed my soul :3
> 
> Until next time ^^


	2. Chapter 2

Kyungsoo couldn’t bring himself to eat too much. Everything was delicious and plated beautifully, and he had absolutely no idea who had prepared those intricate dishes or when they’d done it, but despite everything being amazing he just couldn’t swallow the food.

There was a tight pull on his gut and a funny tick in his leg as he realized that even now, even in the morning during breakfast, the eyes of the hosts were all focused on them.

Silently, soundlessly. Like predators waiting for their prey to fall into a trap.

He let go of the fork at some point, throwing an almost incredulous and somewhat judging look towards Chanyeol who kept wolfing down bite sandwiches like a savage.

Kyungsoo tried to not get too stressed out by the silence in the room, interrupted every now and then by the clattering of forks against plates. He also tried not to look up. Because every time he looked up he caught a different pair of eyes staring at him.

First it was the big brother. Junmyeon. Staring at him while reaching out to impale a grape on his fork.

Then it was the cat-boy. Minseok. Staring at him while elegantly leaning back into his chair and crossing his legs.

The brother with the unamused smile was next. Jongdae. Staring at him while swirling that ruby red, sweet wine in a glass.

And then there was the fourth one.

Kim Jongin.

Sitting right beside him, eyes never leaving him. Even when Kyungsoo wasn’t looking towards him, he could feel that burning gaze. He could feel the intensity of the other’s look from the seat next to him.

He was almost too scared to turn and look at that dishevelled and scary beauty, with a halo of dark blond, simply staring at him with that little ominous smirk.

He gradually kept lowering himself in his seat, as if trying to disappear.

Baekhyun’s eyes were the only ones he was able to meet and he saw a multiplied version of his own discomfort in his friend’s gaze. It was that look of borderline horror. Similar to the one he’d gotten before their last pop quiz in microeconomics.

Kyungsoo almost jumped out of his skin when a voice finally resounded in the quiet dining room.

“How did you sleep last night?”

Kyungsoo and Baekhyun exchanged yet another panicked look. Chanyeol’s mouth was full of sandwiches.

“Very well!” Kyungsoo blurted out first, eyes shooting towards Junmyeon, who had asked the question. He didn’t look particularly interested, but Kyungsoo added, for good measure: “Thank you.”

Junmyeon’s smile was somewhat distracted, somewhat completely empty as he nodded once. The look in his eyes – unchanging.

“You said,” Baekhyun started and suddenly everyone’s eyes shifted towards him. He seemed to tense a little, as his eyes found Kyungsoo’s for a moment. Then he set his jaw. “You said it would take about a week to get the roads cleared.”

The silence in the room was confirmation enough to that statement.

Kyungsoo vaguely noticed Jongdae leaning back in his own chair and immediately pulling his husband’s arms into his grasp, placing several kisses on his pale skin.

The side of his face was still burning with the insistent staring of the third Kim brother.

“We, uh….we have some chips down in our car, and some more stuff from the gas station, but there’s seven of us. It won’t be enough. What are we going to eat the entire week?”

Baekhyun seemed almost too afraid to ask the question. Kyungsoo almost groaned, but a part of him turned unpleasantly. He could practically hear the gears in Baekhyun’s brain shifting. He could practically hear the distressed thoughts about cannibalism. He could see it written all over his friend’s face. Kyungsoo wished he could kick him but he was sitting way too far.

The brothers exchanged a look then, and Kyungsoo didn’t realize he had been holding his breath until Jongdae finally spoke.

“We can get something from the town. I have some business later there as it is. I suppose I could bring some more groceries.”

“Very well.”

Kyungsoo straightened up then, throwing a quick look towards Jongin, who was still leaning back in his chair, his fingers drumming on the wooden table. He was still staring at him, lips still pulled in a little smirk. Kyungsoo looked away just in time to see Baekhyun tensing even more.

“Town?” the redhead asked, a hysterical note in his voice. “But you said the roads are flooded!”

“Not the big town,” Junmyeon said after elegantly wiping the edge of his lip with a napkin. “Town is an overstatement. A village. Down the Kim hills, before the river.”

He stood up from his chair, his assessing look moving away from the guests and towards his waistcoat instead, fixing the buttons and creases. When he straightened he looked so elegant and majestic. He reminded Kyungsoo of a vampire.

“You are welcome to join him, if you will. I’m afraid the service down there is even worse than it is here on the hills, but we can try sending a telegraph to the city.”

A telegraph? Kyungsoo felt his eyebrows furrowing involuntarily. What was this, the 20th century?

But he felt a little nudge on his side and he turned to look at his friends. Chanyeol nodded soundlessly and Baekhyun just stared at him.

Right. Maybe if they went they’d at least find a hotel or something. Maybe a functioning phone that hadn’t been killed by the power outage.

He ran a tongue over his dry lips, as he nodded slowly.

“Yeah. Of course. We’ll go with you.”

Kyungsoo startled a little when he heard the scraping sound of wood against wood. He turned his head to see Jongin pushing his chair back and standing up. He was tall and lean, and the black clothes were hugging his body elegantly. His thumb was playing with the ring on his index finger, as he looked down at Kyungsoo and smiled.

And again, Kyungsoo shuddered.

Because that smile was so beautiful. So beautiful, yet so frightening.

“Perfect,” he said through that ominous smile. “I will join too, brother.”

Kyungsoo blinked away quickly when he saw Junmyeon staring at his brother. Them exchanging a look, before the elder ran a hand over his clothes to smooth them out one more time. He nodded with that apathetic look on his face.

“Very well.”

* * *

The car that rumbled down the stone road of the dark mansion did not look like it belonged here.

The house was old – the façade was chipping, the floors were creaking under their feet. It stood proud and tall on the top of the hills, next to the dark forest, like a dark peak.

The car that was waiting for them three steps away from the front porch, however, was shiny and new. Modern and beautiful. It looked almost brand new with its shining black exterior.

“Oh, wow,” Chanyeol couldn’t help the exclamation beside him. ”That’s a Rolls Royce.”

Kyungsoo blinked back towards the car and he gripped tighter on his jacket.

It was almost a pity to see something so beautiful in the middle of this dreary and grey weather, with the rain pouring mercilessly.

“Dude, that thing retails for millions of dollars,” Chanyeol was in awe beside him and Kyungsoo bit on the inside of his cheek when his friend turned with a big grin and excitement in his eyes. “Nice ride!”

“I suppose.”

Kyungsoo tried not to be too visually disturbed by how close the voice of Kim Jongin sounded. It was measured and quiet, not quite interested or entertained by Chanyeol’s car fanboying.

He threw a quick, almost hesitant look towards the man and saw him standing straight. He looked elegant even when he wasn’t moving. His clothes were black from head to toe – a black silk shirt, black trousers, a black coat that reached his shins, black fingerless gloves and black sunglasses.

Why he needed sunglasses when there was no sun in sight, Kyungsoo did not know – and he also did not want to question it.

When he caught him staring, a smile bloomed on Kim Jongin’s face – wide and somewhat frightening, and Kyungsoo flinched because _shit_, he had been caught.

“After you.”

Chanyeol didn’t seem to need a second invitation. Kyungsoo could see his excited face as he quickly moved through the rain towards the car – he supposed his friend with a weirdly wired car brain was indeed happy to ride in such a nice car. Baekhyun followed after him, a hand flying up to shield his eyes for the three seconds he needed to get from the porch to the back doors of the shiny black car.

Kyungsoo was about to follow, when he registered the man beside him moving.

It was one swift movement, accompanied by a flapping sound. Black was surrounding him, and Kyungsoo almost choked when he realized that Kim Jongin had stepped closer to him, their arms brushing, as he held a huge umbrella above both of them.

Kyungsoo felt shivers running down his spine at the sight of that smirk again.

He took the hint, though, and he also didn’t trust himself to speak, so he simply moved forward. Kim Jongin walked right beside him.

The raindrops were loud and heavy against the black umbrella, and Kyungsoo’s breath was shallow, as he hurried forward, trying not to mind the fact that the man beside him smelled like roses.

He almost tripped over his own feet as he hurried to get in the backseat next to his friends.

Kyungsoo didn’t know why his heart was racing like this – he didn’t know how to feel really. For the most part, he felt uncomfortable. He also felt slightly alarmed and scared. Those people were just weird. He threw a quick look towards Chanyeol and Baekhyun.

They needed to somehow detach themselves from the Kim brothers at that village and find some hotel. That would be easier.

He flinched again when Kim Jongin slid inside the front seat elegantly, next to his elder brother, and then shut the door.

Jongdae just looked at him curtly, before starting the car. Its purr was low and sweet, and it moved smoothly from its spot when Jongdae pressed the accelerator.

Chanyeol was giddy in his seat, and Baekhyun looked like he was trying to solve a math problem, and Kyungsoo just breathed out. His eyes kept flashing back and forth between his friends, towards Jongdae every now and then.

And then he froze again.

Because his eyes caught the back mirror, and he realized that Jongin was once again staring at him. His dark sunglasses were lifted on his unruly blond locks, and his dark eyes were staring right at his through the mirror.

Kyungsoo looked away in the matter of milliseconds. The hills were endless, and the sky was infinite and grey, the pouring rain made everything look foggy.

Yes.

Uncomfortable was the right word.

* * *

When Junmyeon had said that town was an overstatement, he hadn’t been joking. Then again, Kyungsoo and his friends were from the capital. Any small town in the countryside looked small to him.

The car was once again ridiculously standing out. The buildings were low, with old-looking stones at the front.

Jongdae parked the car next to a little square with a fountain that wasn’t working.

“Minseok wanted clementines,” Jongdae said with that same low and rather flat voice as he got out of the car to join them. It had stopped raining now, but the dark was gloomy and dark above them. The square was empty, and Jongdae just fixed his coat. “I will meet you back at the car in half an hour.”

Baekhyun looked somewhat confused as he watched Jongdae walking away from them. The heels of his black boots were clicking against the cobblestones.

“But it’s summer. He won’t find clementines anywhere.”

“It’s for Minseok,” Jongin’s voice was deep and hoarse and just as flat as he barely graced Baekhyun with a quick glance. “He’ll find them.”

That explained next to nothing, and Kyungsoo made sure to stick to Chanyeol’s side as he looked around the square.

There was a flower shop on the other side of the street, there was a bakery. There were no people out on the wet streets, barely any cars.

His eyes flashed to another building then. It was a house further down the street, and there were some children playing on the porch. A little girl and a slightly bigger boy, playing with what looked like toy trucks.

“We should get the groceries,” Jongin said, and Kyungsoo snapped his eyes away from those children and towards the tall man instead. He was looking down the road, elegant fingers pulling on the leather gloves on his hands. Then his eyes flashed towards Kyungsoo, and his hand smoothly moved to the side, towards the road. “_Après vois_. After you.”

Kyungsoo’s smile was just as stressed out and awkward as he felt, as he pulled the thin jacket tighter around himself and started walking down the cobblestones of this small village.

Jongin reached up to lower the black sunglasses over his eyes again, and his strides were confident and elegant as he walked down the street alongside them.

“Your brother…uh, Junmyeon? He said we can send a telegraph to the city.”

Jongin’s didn’t even twitch, his head just turned the slightest bit to acknowledge Baekhyun.

“Right.”

Kyungsoo almost scoffed. So what would they do with this telegraph? If the roads were blocked, what would the city do? They were just three college students on a summer vacation trip. They weren’t going to send a helicopter to get them out of there.

He sighed, shaking his head and looking around.

There were some more people here. Throwing quick looks towards them moving in the middle of the street. Their conversations were dying out, their eyes were lingering. Kyungsoo felt shivers running up his spine again, and for the first time since last night – they weren’t because of the creepy Kims.

They were because those people would look at them, or rather – at Jongin, and then they’d huddle together closer. They’d walk out of his way. They’d look borderline scared.

Kyungsoo’s eyes shifted to the house from earlier then. He turned just in time to see a woman standing on the porch, ordering the children to get back inside the house. She threw a quick look towards them, eyes lingering on Jongin, before she shut the door behind them.

Kyungsoo’s eyebrow twitched. He turned to look at Baekhyun to only see that panicked expression again. Good. So he wasn’t seeing things, he wasn’t delusional.

“Uh, wouldn’t it be a better idea if we split up?” Baekhyun offered quietly. Now, that had Jongin slowing down a little and turning his head towards him. His face was unreadable, and Baekhyun seemed a little paler than he had two seconds ago.

“Split up?”

“Yeah,” Baekhyun laughed shallowly. “Like, we’d get things done faster. I can-…I can go to the post office, get the telegraph sent. And you can uh…you can get groceries.”

Even when he shrugged his shoulders in disinterest, Jongin looked fancy and elegant.

“Very well.”

“Great, uh…” Baekhyun’s eyes flashed between them. “Meet you back at the car.”

Kyungsoo set his jaw then, throwing a quick look towards Chanyeol.

“I should probably go with you!” he ended up blurting out and taking a step towards Baekhyun as he did. His heart skipped a beat at the look Chanyeol gave them. He seemed equal parts confused and betrayed. Jongin stilled down too. He raised a hand to pull his sunglasses off. His eyes were just as unreadable as the rest of his face. And for the first time, he wasn’t smiling or smirking at him. Kyungsoo felt chills all over his body. “Uh, you know. So he doesn’t get lost. It’s better to move together.”

“I see,” Jongin said, his eyes flashing back to Kyungsoo, darker and deeper than a black hole. “Pity.”

Kyungsoo almost breathed out when he felt Baekhyun’s hand pulling at the hem of his jacket. Chanyeol was looking at them like they were the biggest fools on the face of Earth. Maybe they were.

Kyungsoo watched Jongin and his eyes lazily moving towards Chanyeol and measuring him with a disturbingly calm gaze. Then he put his sunglasses back on.

“I guess you’ll do for some decent company as well,” he ended up saying and Kyungsoo almost winced. That wasn’t a very nice thing to say. “At least you look like you can carry some bags. Let’s go.”

They did not dwell. Jongin started walking down the street again, more people turned away from him, and Chanyeol just threw them one more betrayed and disappointed glance, before hurrying after the Kim.

Baekhyun exhaled loudly when it was just him and Kyungsoo left on the sidewalk.

“What the actual fuck?”

“What?”

“Those guys are seriously messed up,” Baekhyun shook his head, red strands of hair falling over his eyes as he let out a sigh. “They’re creeping me out. We should get out of there.”

“Yeah,” Kyungsoo mumbled quietly, eyes shooting one last look towards the retreating forms of the elegantly moving Jongin and the somewhat clumsy Chanyeol. Then he turned back to Baekhyun. “We’re not going to the post office, are we?”

“Dude, no. What can the post office do to get us out of here? We’re looking for a hotel.”

Kyungsoo nodded, as him and Baekhyun started walking in the opposite direction.

“And honestly, what the hell is the deal with them?” Baekhyun was ranting, his hands buried deep down in his jacket’s pockets. It was really chilly outside and Kyungsoo wanted to curse. They had packed for the beach. Not for a sudden storm in the middle of nowhere. “The mansion, the forest, the hills. The whole marble face thing?”

“Marble face?”

“You know. Like, not showing any emotion whatso-fucking-ever? It’s really weird.”

Kyungsoo nodded absentmindedly, eyes shooting around. The people were still looking at them funny, even if Jongin wasn’t with them anymore. It made his eyebrows furrow even more.

“And did you see what happened when we got out of the car?” Baekhyun kept ranting. “The people fucking parted like the Red Sea parted for Moses. What is up with _that_?”

Kyungsoo breathed in deeply, lowering his gaze. He didn’t know. He didn’t really think he wanted to know. He felt his eyebrow twitching as he looked at Baekhyun and sighed out.

“Come on,” he ended up saying and pulling his friend forward. “Let’s find a hotel.”

* * *

When Kyungsoo approached some people to ask them where to find a hotel, they looked at him as if he were contagious, before scurrying away.

That happened three times until they found someone who eventually pointed their finger in a direction, before walking away.

It was a guest house, and it was tiny and barely lit, and when the bell rang once they stepped through the door, several pairs of eyes turned towards them.

“Hello,” Baekhyun started with a cheerful voice, approaching the counter. The woman behind it was already frowning. “We were wondering if you had any free rooms we could stay in until the roads clear?”

“No.”

Kyungsoo felt a pang in his chest as he recognized that same look of urgency in the woman’s eyes and the chill in her voice. Baekhyun’s smile faltered, and he stepped from one fot to the other.

“Uh…one room then? We could share it.”

“We don’t have vacancy.”

Kyungsoo turned to look at Baekhyun briefly. His friend’s shoulder slumped down, and he let out a scoff.

“_What_? You didn’t even check!”

Kyungsoo raised a hand to put on Baekhyun’s shoulder, to calm him down before he could raise his voice again, but a creak on the wooden floor of the guest house made him flash his eyes back to the counter.

“She said,” a big man said, muscular, large. His expression wasn’t inviting. He looked ready to beat their asses. “There’s no vacancy.”

Baekhyun looked like he was on the fine line between crying and cursing, so Kyungsoo just squeezed his shoulder with pursed lips.

“Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

* * *

Chanyeol looked as cheerful as ever as he hopped towards them on the main square. Baekhyun gave him a distasteful look and Kyungsoo just anxiously threw a look to the man walking a few steps behind him.

Jongin’s face was just as stoic as it had been before, and the sunglasses were still hiding some of it, and he still very much looked like a modern day grunge vampire with his long, black coat.

“There you are,” Chanyeol exclaimed as he set down a bunch of bags with groceries down on the ground. “I was wondering where you are! We passed by the post office and it was closed.”

“Ugh,” Baekhyun couldn’t control the groan. “What a shithole town.”

Jongin reached them then, and Kyungsoo buried his gaze in the ground. The tips of his sneakers were suddenly the most entertaining thing in the world and he refused to look up.

Silence fell again then, and even if he felt those eyes on him, Kyungsoo did not flinch. He didn’t look up, and he tried to contain the frown that was tugging on his lips. He supposed he was failing.

_ Of course _ their car would die in the shittiest of all places and _of course_ they’d get stuck with the town weirdos. Just his _goddamn_ luck.

“You’re late.”

Kyungsoo looked up at Jongin suddenly speaking. He followed his gaze to the side, to see Jongdae returning from the opposide side of the square. He was holding a paper bag, and striding confidently towards them.

“My apologies,” the man said, not really sounding apologetic at all, as he pulled out his keys and unlocked the car. He looked at every single one of them as he finally reached the car. “You got everything done?”

Kyungsoo and Baekhyun looked at each other, the disappointment visible on their faces.

“Yeah,” Chanyeol nodded with an oblivious smile.

“Good.”

* * *

“There you go.”

Kyungsoo flinched when he heard a quiet voice just in front of him. The lights in the dining room were weird – a mix of portable camping flashlight lanterns and lit up candles throwing dancing shadows on the walls.

He looked up to see Junmyeon standing in front of him with a black bundle in his hands. Kyungsoo’s eyebrow twitched in confusion.

“You said you were headed for the beach. I suppose you didn’t predict such weather.”

He raised the bundle again and Kyungsoo nodded breathlessly as he reached out to take it.

“Thank you,” Kyungsoo mumbled out quietly as he unfolded the sweater. “That’s uh…thanks.”

Junmyeon just gave him a little, almost non-existent and flat smile, before handing the other boys sweaters too. Baekhyun’s quiet ‘thanks’ sounded muffled.

Chanyeol, on the other hand, was already sliding the large sweater over his head, his brown hair flying everywhere.

“You’ve been very kind to us,” he ended up saying with his genuinely kind smile. “We should uh…we could cook dinner? I know it’s not nearly enough to repay you for all your kindness, but…yeah.”

“That’s very nice of you.”

Kyungsoo only frowned a little as Chanyeol smiled brightly towards the host, then shot a look in his direction.

Because when Chanyeol had offered to cook dinner he had forgotten to mention that he survived on cereal and McDonalds in college and that the only actual food he ever consumed was the one he stole from Kyungsoo whenever he raided his dorm room.

Or in other words, he had just forced Kyungsoo to cook a dinner.

“Are the stoves working?” he ended up asking with a little sigh.

“They run on gas.”

Kyungsoo took that as a ‘yes’. Good.

Great.

At least he would have something to do instead of sitting around all jittery, avoiding everybody’s eyes.

“Okay, well, uh…I’ll do that.”

“Cool,” Chanyeol said as he stood up. That black sweater looked good on him as he clapped his hands. “I’ll go down to the car and get our bags. Seems like we’re gonna stay a could more days, so-“

“I’m coming with you.”

It was Kyungsoo’s turn to throw a rather distressed look towards his friends. Baekhyun just stared at him with an apologetic glint. 

“The forest will get very dark soon,” Minseok said from the side. He was sitting in Jongdae’s lap, and the other one was lazily peppering his skin with kisses.

The clementines were scattered on the table in front of them.

“He’s right,” Junmyeon agreed. “I’ll go with you. I know the paths well.”

“Cool.”

Kyungsoo held his breath, as his friends left the room and left him alone. He shook his head a little, as he turned to the grocery bags instead.

Food.

Cool. He could do that. He was good at cooking, somewhat.

He quickly put on the sweater Junmyeon gave him – it was soft and warm and he rolled up the sleeves quickly. He tried to ignore the rustling sounds from the other side of the room.

He was in the middle of washing tomatoes, when he saw the shadows on the walls beside him moving. He didn’t startle when he turned the slightest bit and saw the figure of the tall, lean man standing right beside him. He was leaning on the counter with his arms crossed in front of his chest. He was looking at him with what looked like curiosity. Kyungsoo couldn’t really tell.

“You like cooking?”

“Not necessarily like,” Kyungsoo admitted quietly. “I’m decent at it.”

Jongin measured him with his unreadable, dark eyes. The flickering lights from the candles were dancing on his skin.

“If you don’t like you, you don’t have to do it.”

Kyungsoo blinked, before eventually shrugging.

“It’s fine.”

Kyungsoo didn’t think he’d ever put this much effort into washing vegetables, but it was the only thing he could do now to not mind the fact that Jongin was still standing beside him and looking at him.

He was in the middle of washing lettuce leaves when he felt the intensity of that look. The silence was weighing down on him and he was cursing at his best friends with every fibre of his being. He gave up with a sigh.

“So,” he ended up saying quietly, hesitantly. Trying to break that deafening and heavy silence. “The town…the people there seemed to uh…know you.”

“Yes.”

Kyungsoo was surprised by how mellow and soft Jongin’s voice sounded. In the quiet room, it got carried through the old walls, low and husky.

“But you don’t talk to them?”

“Of course we do,” Jongin said, voice a little lighter. “We’re not savages.”

“Then why did-“ Kyungsoo bit on the inside of his cheek to stop himself from blurting out unnecessary questions, washing the same leaf for the third time. He felt his eyebrow ticking.

“Why did they avoid us?”

He turned his head lightly to the source of the voice. It was Jongdae speaking, arms still tightly wrapped around his husband. Kyungsoo made an apologetic face at the man who just smiled at him with no hint of emotion whatsoever.

He leaned back in the chair, bringing Minseok’s palm to his lips and placing a kiss on his knuckles. Then his eyes shot back towards Kyungsoo.

“Your great-great aunt murders some teenagers and suddenly you’re the bad guy.”

Kyungsoo felt himself stilling down and his eyes widening a little as he immediately looked away from that emotionless smile. He stared down at the water running in the sink, trying to control his hands. Was he shaking?

“Yeah, it was a long time ago. They accused her of being a witch and burned her at the stake,” Jongin drawled beside him and Kyungsoo heard the wooden floor creaking underneath him as he straightened up and moved behind him. His arm brushed against Kyungsoo’s, as he leaned on the other counter, on his other side. His face was illuminated by the flickering lights, his messy blond hair flying in every direction. His lips were plump and pulled in an ironic smile. “Do you believe in witches?”

Kyugnsoo set his jaw tightly, and he narrowed his eyes at the sink. If he bit on his tongue any harder, he’d draw blood. He shook his head slightly.

“I don’t…I don’t know. I guess I don’t.”

“I see,” Jongin’s voice was smooth and low. “Neither do I.”

Kyungsoo’s eyes shot up towards him then, measuring. This was, so far, the least creepy thing he’d heard that man say and that was a relief.

He felt his shoulder relaxing a little, as he started washing the same leaf again.

“So you don’t…you don’t think she killed people?”

“Oh, no,” Jongin shook his head immediately, his blond hair flying around him. “She _did_ murder them. I just don’t think she was a witch.”

There we go, Kyungsoo thought as he gripped on the lettuce for dear life. He felt chills running up his spine at that smile on jongin’s face. His teeth were shining under the flickering lights of the candles and Kyungsoo had never felt more scared by someone this beautiful.

He pursed his lips a little and focused on the food. No water drinking tonight. He was _not_ leaving Baekhyun and Chanyeol, even if he dried up from the inside.

“Uh,” Kyungsoo ended up saying eventually. “I need a cutting board and a knife?”

Jongin’s eyes lingered on him for a few seconds before he reached out to pull one of the drawers next to Kyungsoo open.

Kyungsoo mumbled out a quiet thanks as he reached out to grab the first knife he saw and the cutting board resting on the side.

“So if…if you can’t get along well with the people,” he said hesitantly. “And if they are prejudiced because of that….uh….that aunt of yours…why don’t you move?”

There wasn’t an immediate answer, and Kyungsoo looked up hesitantly. Jongin was just staring at him with that unreadable smile, his fingers tapping on the counter. The rings were making consistent noises at every contact with the wood.

“This is home. Why would we move?” Jongin’s smile widened then, his eyes and teeth catching the light again and making his smile look ominous and frightening. “That suits you.”

Kyungsoo looked down to the black sweater hugging his body. He was just about to mumble out something awkward, when Jongin spoke again.

“The knife, I mean.”

He almost dropped the knife he was holding. He felt his breath coming short and his heart skipping a beat. What the _fuck_ kind of compliment was that?!

He furrowed his eyebrows and pursed his lips as he continued cutting the vegetables slowly, insistently ignoring Jongin’s eyes burning holes in the side of his face.

“Back in the early 1600s,” Jongdae started saying and his voice was a little louder than usual, startling Kyungsoo. He looked at him with almost relief though, for he had somewhat changed the subject. The man was staring at him with his eyes lined with dark. His gaze was sharp. “Our family was the first to set foot on these grounds. The location is good – mountains, hills, forests, rivers. It was perfect, so they settled here and founded the town.”

“Oh,” Kyungsoo let out a shaky breath.

“Yes. The crops, the lands, all the businesses in this town – they are ours.” Jongdae said, and Kyungsoo met his sharp eyes for a millisecond. “Our lives, our work, and as my little brother said, our home – it’s all here. That’s why we won’t move.”

Jongdae looked like he was ready to fight, and Kyungsoo just nodded quickly, trying to diffuse the tension in his eyes.

“And that’s why they also can’t kick us out. We own everything.”

Kyungsoo nodded quietly. So this mansion had been here for centuries. That town, the little and uninviting village, it had existed for so long. And those people here…

He nodded absentmindedly as he continued cutting vegetables, the only sound coming from the knife hitting the cutting board every once in a while and constant light kisses from the other side of the room.

He felt his shoulders tensing again when he saw a hand all to close to his. With rings on those slender, beautiful fingers.

Jongin was peering down at him, his body way too close, Kyungsoo could practically feel the warmth.

Kyungsoo felt his breath hitching at the flickering lights on bronze skin.

“Do you wanna help?” he ended up blurting out, before even thinking about it.

Kim Jongin’s eyes moved down to the food waiting to be cooked, and his eyebrows shot up the tiniest bit in surprise. Then he looked back at him, face once again tamed into a completely indestructible and unreadable mask.

He smirked a little.

“Of course, mon ami.”

Kyungsoo took in a deep breath, eyes shooting towards the door. He sure as hell hoped his friends would get back here fast. Because if Chanyeol had found it within himself to actually be calm around these guys, then so could Kyungsoo.

He breathed in deeply, before smiling awkwardly.

“Can you handle a knife?”

A laugh broke the silence in the room, and Kyungsoo’s eyes shot to the other side of the table.

Jongdae was chuckling, and for once – he actually did seem entertained.

Even Minseok had raised a hand to stifle a laugh.

Kyungsoo blinked away from them, confusion and horror pumping through his entire body in his veins, as he looked back at Jongin, who was rolling up the sleeves of his silk black shirt. There was that ominous smirk pulling on his plush lips again when his dark eyes flashed towards him. There was a glimmer in them, something amused and delighted.

“You’d be surprised.”


	3. Chapter 3

Kyungsoo kept throwing worried glances over the quiet dinner table.

Baekhyun was poking the spaghetti with his fork and he looked even paler than he had yesterday – he seemed to have lost his appetite. Kyungsoo couldn’t really blame him. He couldn’t really bring himself to eat too much either.

Chanyeol, on the other hand, was wolfing down the food Kyungsoo had prepared like he’d never see another day. He had an excited twinkle in his eye as he reached to fill his plate with a second serving.

The hosts, on the other hand, were reserved. They were sitting up straight, and they were eating their meal silently. Their expressions did not let Kyungsoo in on any of their thoughts, and he tried desperately to avoid eye-contact with the man sitting next to him.

It was Junmyeon who finished first and raised a napkin to tap the corner of his lip, before finally breaking the silence.

“That was delightful,” he said in a quiet, flat tone and Kyungsoo couldn’t really tell if he was being genuine or not. He did, however, hope that after years in college surviving on only that he’d have polished the recipe by now. He felt a pair of sharp, dark eyes moving towards him and he looked at Junmyeon. “Thank you for dinner, Kyungsoo.”

He cleared his throat, straightening up a little in his seat. He felt like a slob next to those elegant and sophisticated, albeit creepy, men.

“Of course,” he mumbled out quietly, eyes shooting to the side for a millisecond. “And I cannot take all the credit. Uh…Jongin helped too.”

“Right.”

Kyungsoo received praises from the hosts that evening. Quiet, collected words, spoken with neutral expressions and merely the ghosts of a smile. It felt more unnerving now that they were back to sipping on wine and looking at him and his friends, done with dinner.

“Uh, I’ll do the dishes,” Baekhyun said at some point, his eyes avoiding everything and everyone.

Chanyeol just patted him on his back rather strongly, the slap resounding in the quiet room. He seemed all too pleased to not be the one to wash dishes.

Kyungsoo let go of his fork, and pushed his chair back.

“I’ll help.”

He was just about to get up from the chair and hurry after Baekhyun to the sink in the corner of the room. However, a deep and hoarse voice stopped him.

“No,” he heard the man sitting next to him saying, his one word resounding throughout the quiet dining hall with a certain sharpness. Kyungsoo finally forced himself to turn his head and look at Kim Jongin, and the way he was leaning casually in his chair, one leg thrown over the other in those tight, black trousers. His ash-silver hair was pushed to the side, and the look in his eyes was demanding as he moved it from him to his brothers. A little, freezingly cold smile pulled on the corner of his lips. “Where are our manners?”

Kyungsoo blinked away from him then, and towards the other Kims, and the way they were staring at each other soundlessly. It was, once again, Junmyeon, who broke the silence first.

He ascended from his chair, the black of his blazer smoothly falling down his sides when he stood up.

“You’re right, brother. They have been out all day long.” Junmyeon directed his gaze to Jongdae, whose eyes were promptly fixed on Jongin, and to Minseok, who had been holding his husband’s hand until now. “Come on, let’s do the dishes.”

There were no objections as the hosts stood up and followed Junmyeon to the sink. Baekhyun stepped away from there, eyes shooting back to Kyungsoo in question.

Jongin was the only one of the Kim brothers who remained sitting for a few more seconds.

Kyungsoo only looked up when he heard the scraping of his chair beside him. He peered from underneath his fringe as the blond man stood up straight and walked towards the window, his steps resounding through the empty room.

The moonlight and the flickering lights were throwing shades on Kim Jongin’s face when Kyungsoo looked at him, illuminating his sharp jawline and his dark eyes.

“It’s not raining right now,” he said, whispered almost, with a thoughtful hint to his voice. And then he turned his eyes towards him quickly, and Kyungsoo almost cursed. He’d been caught staring. “Can I interest you in a walk?”

Kyungsoo felt his body freezing and he sensed the shivers running up his spine, the chill taking over his veins when he confirmed that, yes, Kim Jongin was very intently looking at him and that yes, he was talking to him.

He flinched then, when he heard Chanyeol clearing his throat and giving him a look. ‘_Dude’_, he mouthed with raised eyebrows, reminding him that an answer was still being awaited. Baekhyun was gripping on to one of the table napkins and he barely shook his head.

Kyungsoo looked out the window then, at the dark night outside, and the man sitting at the window pane, still staring at him and patiently waiting for an answer.

“Uh,” he let out an ineloquent sound, slowly standing up from his chair. “I’m actually beat. We walked around the town a lot, so I think I’ll go sleep now.”

His eyes flashed to his friends. As an afterthought, he added:

“I think we all should.”

Baekhyun’s nod was eager as he crossed the room quickly and stood by his side. Chanyeol was a bit slower, the crease between his eyebrows reflecting his confusion and borderline disappointment.

Kim Jongin’s face, on the other hand, did not show any sign of emotion. Not a muscle moved, as he simply nodded once briefly, the silver of his hair falling over his handsome face.

“_C'est dommage_,” he said, voice mellow and soft, deep and quiet. That little smile from earlier cracked his lips then, a mysterious smile that let nobody in on his thoughts. “Of course. You’re tired. You should rest.”

Kyungsoo nodded, eyes quickly moving away from the tall man. He felt almost uncomfortable in his own body, sensing those prying eyes on himself even as he moved to walk away.

“Thanks,” Chanyeol’s voice was booming, shaking up the quiet and eerie atmosphere in the dining hall. “Have a good night, all of you.”

They hurried to get out of the kitchen then, and Chanyeol looked like he had something to say. Baekhyun, however, reached out to punch him in the shoulder and shush him, dragging him up the stairs.

Kyungsoo threw one last towards the door of the dining hall and the flickering lights dancing on the wooden floors of the mansion. He could hear quiet voices coming from inside but he could not tell what they were saying, a quick exchange between the brothers. Then there was an eerie chuckle.

Someone put out the lights of the candles, and the flickering shadows on the floor disappeared. There were footsteps, wooden floors creaking under the weight of a person walking.

Kyungsoo looked away then, and hurried after his friends.

His heart was still madly beating in his chest, an iron grip on it, shaking it with a sharp thrill, and with something that almost reminded him of fear.

Almost.

* * *

“That creep asked us again if we want separate rooms,” Baekhyun said with an annoyed huff as he threw his bag to the side on the floor of the room after getting changed into his pyjamas. “So they could kill me in my sleep? Like hell I want one.”

“Oh, _come on_!” Chanyeol replied with an equally loud huff as he threw himself on the bed. “You two are being unnecessarily rude. They’ve been nothing but kind to us ever since we got here.”

Kyungsoo made a face at the taller one, throwing a blanket on the couch.

“Besides, we’re cramped together in this one room like fucking sardines,” Chanyeol whined, throwing out his long arms and legs to wrap around Baekhyun on the bed.

“Bro, get _off _me.”

“It’s cold,” Chanyeol said indignantly and Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. He didn’t have the heart to break it to his two best friends that cuddling each other on a shared bed was definitely not the usual bro behaviour. “We should really think about their offer while it still stands. Kyungsoo is sleeping on the couch. That can’t be comfortable.”

“I’m sure he prefers the couch to a room in the freaking Hill House.”

“The what?”

“_Nevermind_.” Baekhyun snapped at Chanyeol, before throwing a look towards Kyungsoo. “Do you wanna switch tonight? I can sleep there.”

“It’s fine,” Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow at them. “You two look way too comfortable over there.”

Baekhyun protested in the same time Chanyeol just pulled him even closer. Kyungsoo shook his head again, as he climbed onto the couch and wrapped himself in the blankets.

The room was mostly silent as they attempted to sleep. There was an occasional creak of a bed, or a whine from Baekhyun that he was hot. A demand for Chanyeol to get off him. But eventually, even those little sounds died out and were instead replaced by the breathing of the old mansion.

The winds were loud and the howling of the aged wood was carried on by the storm.

Kyungsoo turned to his side, a deep breath leaving his lungs as he pulled the blanket closer around himself.

* * *

The storm was only getting worse, Kyungsoo could hear it. The harsh raindrops hitting the walls of the mansion and resounding in the spacious halls, the winds whistling outside.

Baekhyun was snoring quietly.

And Kyungsoo could not even bring himself to close his eyes. He could not fall asleep.

He kept turning around, tossing on the couch, trying to sleep.

Alas, sleep did not come to him that night.

He just lied there, on the couch, listening to the sounds of the storm making this old house sing its wailing song.

It was ghastly.

Kyungsoo turned around again, heaving yet another sigh.

He did not feel comfortable in this house. There was just something about it that made him feel on edge at all times. And it definitely did not help that its residents were acting the way they were.

He threw a look towards the bed and Baekhyun’s rueful expression while he was sleeping with Chanyeol’s long limbs wrapped around him.

He was glad he hadn’t told them about that story he’d heard last night. If he had, Baekhyun would have completely freaked out, and Chanyeol would have probably blamed him for lying.

Instead, he’d kept it to himself, that story.

And it’s what kept him up all night.

Ancient families and colonies, witchcraft, murders. Prejudices and judgement.

_ She did murder them _, Kim Jongin’s voice resounded in his mind, along with the image of that ominous smile of his as he held up one of the knives. The thought of it alone made his skin crawl.

He sat up on the couch, hair dishevelled from all the rolling around, and he sighed out.

The look he threw at the window and the dark sky was accusing – why did the rain not stop? Why did the storm not calm down? Why was it keeping them stuck here?

If anything else of the sort happened, he was afraid he’d actually fall to Baekhyun’s level and start listening to his paranoid stories based on horror movies.

That wouldn’t do.

He tried to be as quiet as possible as he slipped from beneath the blanket. The room was cold, so he hurried to pull one of his hoodies from the bags Chanyeol and Baekhyun had brought over from their car.

He threw one last look towards his friends, still very much sound asleep, despite the thunders shaking up the house every now and then.

The wooden floors were loud in the silence of the house underneath his feet as he started walking down the hallway slowly.

The corridors of the house were long, the carpets and the wallpaper seemed worn. Even the paintings hanging on the walls seemed dated, spider webs adorning some of their corners like decorations.

His eyes were taking everything in now as he wandered downstairs. Everything he hadn’t paid attention to before – the old portraits with rich frames, the old swords hanging as decorations between the paintings, the old chandelier with spider webs hanging from it.

He twisted his arms together, trying to keep his warmth. The house was cold, and he wondered if it was the old construction keeping the chill inside or just the shitty weather.

His eyes lingered on the old windows at the end of the hall shaking because of the wind.

And then there was a loud creak on the wood, and he whipped his head in the direction of the slightly opened door. There was faint light streaming from the other room, and Kyungsoo’s eyebrows twitched.

He contemplated for a few seconds just turning around and beelining straight for the room again. But the stairs would creak under his feet and whoever was awake would hear him.

Besides, maybe Chanyeol was right.

Maybe they were just arrogant city kids who did not understand how these people worked. Maybe he really was just being paranoid.

He stepped hesitantly towards the open door and peeked inside the room.

It was spacious, obviously so – a huge hall with massive couches and a fireplace. The light was coming from the fire burning in it gently, the wood popping every now and then. It was a gentler sound.

There was a man sitting on the couch, his back turned to the door.

But Kyungsoo froze in his spot, because there was only one man in this house with the moonlight in his hairs, the strands of dirty silver messed up into perfection.

Jongin.

He felt that iron grip squeezing his heart and shivers running up his spine again. Maybe he really had to turn around and leave. Of all people-

“_Come in_,” Jongin’s voice wasn’t loud but it made him flinch. His fingers gripped the wood of the door harder, and he blinked quickly. The man hadn’t even turned around to look at him.

Kyungsoo winced, nose scrunching up in distaste, as his heartrate picked up again and he pushed the door open. It creaked loudly, and he sighed out.

With every step he took closer to those massive, red, velvety couches, the floor creaked underneath his feet and made him frown. With every step, he took more and more of the room in – the massive piano in the corner, the majestic fireplace, the cupboards with crystal glasses and silverware lined up for display. This house really was ancient.

He blinked away from the walls when he rounded the couch and Kim Jongin finally came into view.

He was sitting in the large couch with his legs crossed, holding a crystal glass between his slender fingers. His eyes were trained on the fire until Kyungsoo appeared beside him.

That’s when he moved them towards him slowly, looking at him silently with those deep and dark eyes. The lights from the fire were dancing on his golden skin, and the shadows from his hair were falling over his skin.

If Kyungsoo wasn’t so desperately petrified by him and that unsettling smile, he’d have been completely and utterly smitten by that harsh and raw beauty.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Kim Jongin asked, one of his elegant hands just reaching out nonchalantly to point towards the other couch.

Kyungsoo felt a little stiff as he sat down across the table from Kim Jongin, closer to the fireplace. The room felt warm here, the fire sending heat in waves towards them. He almost sighed out in relief.

“Not really,” he ended up mumbling quietly, trying not to look towards the other man. “What about you?”

“The storm was just too beautiful to miss,” Kim Jongin said and his voice was deep and mellow. Kyungsoo turned to look at him briefly. Jongin was still staring at him, resting back on the couch and swirling his drink in the crystal glass. “Didn’t feel like sleeping just yet.”

Kim Jongin shifted then. He left his glass on the table with a quiet thud, as he reached to the side to pick up another empty glass between his thin fingers. His ring made a clanking noise against the crystal.

“Now I’m glad I didn’t. I couldn’t have asked for better company,” he said, raising his eyebrows in question. “A drink?”

Kyungsoo breathed in, and it seemed like he wasn’t able to breathe out. He looked at Kim Jongin and his never-changing expression, before his shoulders slumped down.

“Uh, sure.”

He watched as Kim Jongin reached out to the table beside the couch with the crystal glass bottles filled with dark liquids. He picked up one of them smoothly, pouring the brown drink in the glass.

He stood up then, in all his glory, and picked up his own glass too. He rounded the table and handed the drink to Kyungsoo, who took it with trembling fingers, trying his best to not touch the other man’s skin.

Jongin then naturally sat himself down at the end of the couch, much closer to him than he had been just moments ago. He flicked his hair away from his face and looked at him intently.

“It’s whiskey,” he said in a flat tone at Kyungsoo’s somewhat suspicious glance as he looked down at the glass.

“Thanks,” Kyungsoo whispered, trying to not show the mortifying awkwardness that was taking over him.

Silence fell over the room again then, the only sounds coming from the fireplace and the gentle cracking of the wood, contrasting deeply with the sharp blows of the wind outside.

He could hear Kim Jongin’s rings brushing against the crystal glass every now and then. He could feel his eyes on himself.

“So,” he ended up saying at some point, not really knowing where he was going with his questions. It just felt appropriate to at least attempt to start a conversation. He was here now, and it wouldn’t be right to just leave. “What were you doing down here? Except, you know, admiring the storm or whatever.”

Kim Jongin let out a breath and the corner of his lip twitched into something like a smile, a little less ominous than the previous ones. A little more entertained maybe, at the straightforwardness. Maybe the wording.

“I was setting up the fire. You seemed cold at dinner.” Jongin said, taking another sip from his whiskey. “And I was reading.”

Kyungsoo only now took note of the book on the opposite couch’s armrest. It looked old, worn, like it had been read many times.

“You like reading?”

Kim Jongin looked at him for a few long moments, before he spoke.

“A reader lives a thousand lives,” he said. “I enjoy reading. Do you?”

Kyungsoo almost let out a huff of air. Why did he feel so stupidly ignorant in the presence of these men? Who even spoke like this?

“I guess,” he shrugged. “It’s been a long time since I read a good book though, and I don’t really have the time to do so these days anyways.”

“Why not?”

Kyungsoo blinked away from the fire and towards the man who was still very calmly looking at him. He breathed in.

“Life keeps me busy. Between school and work there’s hardly ever time to even rest, let alone read a book.”

Jongin let out a quiet hum and Kyungsoo tried not to stare at his sharp jawline when he took another sip of his drink.

“So, uh-…how old are you?” Kyungsoo flinched the moment the words rolled down his tongue. “Sorry, it’s just-…you look pretty young but the way you speak is so mature, it’s a little confusing.”

It was not only confusing, but incredibly unsettling. Especially the way this man’s eyes showed no emotions whatsoever, no hint as to what he was thinking or feeling. His smiles were almost superficial, distant. His eyes were deep and dark and Kyungsoo could not see what thoughts were swimming in them.

“I am twenty-three,” Kim Jongin replied after a little while, leaning forward and throwing yet another inquiring look towards Kyungsoo, whose eyebrows had shot up. “What about you?”

“Oh…oh, I’m twenty-four,” he said, letting out an awkward chuckle. “So I’m older than you.”

“It seems so,” Kim Jongin let out another quiet hum, that distant smirk still present on his face. “Are you surprised?”

Kyungsoo nodded carefully.

“A little, yes.” He cleared his throat and finally forced himself to finally look at the other man. “So what do you do? Do you go to school or…something?”

Kim Jongin took in a deep breath then, and his eyes flickered to the fireplace briefly. The flames were burning both in the pit and in his eyes, the reflection making the black of his eyes look even darker.

“Education can only nurture a person’s mind to one certain point. Every person is different, and therefore, has a unique way of thinking. And what me and my family want is way beyond that certain point.”

“What you and your family…want?”

Kyungsoo’s eyebrows were furrowed in confusion when Kim Jongin’s eyes returned on him. The half-smile pulled on his lips again.

“I had tutors,” he clarified. “When I was younger. We all did.”

“I see,” Kyungsoo mused, leaning against the armrest of his chair and cocking his head a little. “But did you not miss going to school? Meeting other people, other kids?”

“I have my family.”

Kyungsoo blinked quickly in the finality of that statement. The certainness and clarity of Jongin’s voice when he said that and looked at him. He did not seem in any way defensive about it, but then again – Kyungsoo really couldn’t tell.

Kim Jongin looked genuine and sure of what he was saying, at every time, and Kyungsoo just nodded slowly.

“I see. It must be nice to have such a strong family bond. People to rely on.”

“Family is important,” Kim Jongin leaned forward again after finishing the rest of his drink in one big sip. “My family has a very long and very fascinating history. When you have values and a name to treasure, everything else comes second.”

What was this? Fucking Pride and Prejudice? Kyungsoo’s eyebrows were perpetually furrowed at his point, even when Kim Jongin smiled. A hint of that ominous smile taking over his face, the glint in his eyes shining.

“I can show you tomorrow, if you will.”

Kyungsoo’s mouth opened a little and his eyes flashed around the room. Fuck.

There was no Baekhyun now to back him up, no friends to use as an excuse. Not even Chanyeol to sense that he was panicking.

He was here all alone with his man who was waiting for an answer with raised eyebrows.

“Uh…show me what?”

“The house. The grounds. I can tell you some of the old tales about my family and about this town. It’s fascinating, I promise.”

Kyungsoo looked around the living room again, almost desperately. However, he couldn’t stop himself from looking back towards the man and his inquiring eyes.

There was something very disturbing in that offer, in the prospect of being all alone with Kim Jongin again. There was, however, also something very thrilling about it. Something that was awakening his curiosity, even if he was in no position to be curious about this stranger’s family.

“Yeah…yeah, I guess. That sounds fun.”

Kim Jongin’s face shifted then, and it caught Kyungsoo off guard. The half-smile grew into a wider one, a more pleased one. His eyes shone a bit brighter for a moment as he straightened up.

He seemed, for all the world, excited.

“Very well,” he said, standing up from the couch. He reached out to leave his empty glass on the table. “I assume you did not expect to meet me here when you came downstairs, so I will go now. I do not wish to ruin or intrude your evening”

Kyungsoo blinked when Kim Jongin reached out to grab his empty hand, raising it up to his lips.

Again, he placed a soft kiss on his knuckles, a soft kiss with a pointy stare not moving away from his eyes when his lips left a burning trace on his skin. Kyungsoo blinked in surprise when Kim Jongin straightened up, fingers gliding away from his.

“_Bonne nuit mon ami_,” he said, voice laced with a tone that Kyungsoo had not heard in his voice until now. His eyes were sparkling in the dark night, reflecting the flames of the warm fire. “I will see you in the morning.”

Kyungsoo didn’t even realize he had been holding his breath until the slender figure of Kim Jongin disappeared behind the door, leaving him alone in the dance of shadows and the concert of the warm fire and the cold storm.

* * *

“Sleeping until noon is actually a nice plan,” Baekhyun was saying in hushed tones as Kyungsoo finally got dressed. “At least you get to spend half of the day away from The Addams family.”

Kyungsoo threw a look towards his friend, who just shrugged.

“What?!”

Kyungsoo just shook his head with a deep sigh.

“Where’s Chanyeol?”

“Possibly dead in a ditch.” Baekhyun crossed his arms in front of his chest. “I warned him to not go downstairs by himself this morning when you were sleeping but he did anyways. I stayed in the room with you.”

“My knight in shining armour.”

“Shut up.”

Chanyeol was not, in fact, dead in a ditch.

When they got downstairs in the middle of the day, he was sitting at the dining table with one of the Kim brothers – Kim Jongdae. Chanyeol looked incredibly fascinated, while Kim Jongdae looked like he was having an agonizingly long fight with pesticides.

“Ah, you’re finally up,” Minseok said from across the room, throwing daggers towards the table where his husband was sitting next to Chanyeol. “Coffee?”

Kyungsoo shook his head with a small smile. Instead, he looked towards Chanyeol and his obliviously wide grin.

“You guys should come see this!” he said in his booming voice. “Jongdae is a car collector!”

Figures. Of course Chanyeol would look like a kid on Christmas morning.

“He has like 14 cars.”

“14 cars?” Baekhyun echoed, and for the first time since they’d arrived in this household, he sounded genuinely surprised without the hint of horror. “Damn. And I barely got enough money to buy the old truck.”

“Fascinating,” Minseok was the one who interrupted them with an unimpressed frown, as he walked towards the table. He laid a hand flat on Jongdae’s shoulder and the other one reacted instantly – he reached up to cover his husband’s hand with his own, bringing it down for a series of gentle kisses. Kyungsoo was pretty sure he was not imagining the sharp glares Minseok was shooting in Chanyeol’s direction every now and then, completely ignoring his husband’s kisses. He also almost flinched when those sharp cat-like eyes turned towards him. “Jongin is waiting for you in front of the house.”

“What?” Kyungsoo mumbled out, confused. And then something in his mind clicked. Late night conversations, late night promises. “Oh, _fuck_.”

Kim Jongdae turned to look at him then, an entertained glint passing through his eyes for a mere moment.

“He has been waiting for you since the morning. He’s been out there for four hours.”

Kyungsoo winced, feeling himself move instinctively. It’s not that he was dying to go hang out with Kim Jongin.

It’s just, he was a decent human being, and if someone had been waiting for him for _four_ _hours_, then he supposed he had to at least go and apologize.

“Wait what?” Baekhyun asked, throwing confused glances between him and the Kims. “Why is he waiting for you?”

“Long story. I have to go, I’ll be back in a bit.”

“Hold on! Where are you going?!”

Kyungsoo just wove his hand dismissively, before walking out of the kitchen.

He pushed the front door of the house open.

The skies were cloudy and dark, even if it was the middle of the day. The atmosphere was a little dreary, a little heavy. At least it wasn’t raining right now.

And there, at the heavy stairs in front of the door, there was a dark figure. A slender man, leaning against the stone-cold columns.

Kim Jongin was undeniably gorgeous. He stood out with his sharp features and with his full lips, with his slender and strong body. His messy silver hair was like a halo of thorns on his head. In the daylight, Kyungsoo could see him even better.

A ruined beauty, truly. Gorgeous, yet frightening.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” Kyungsoo said as soon as he opened the door, and Kim Jongin moved his eyes towards him.

“You’re not late.” Kim Jongin said, and his voice was soft and deep. “We never set a time.”

“Still, you’ve been waiting here for so long,” Kyungsoo sighed out. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” Jongin said, stepping closer to him. “I was too excited, so I waited. And now you’re here.”

Kyungsoo tried not to cringe at how creepy that actually sounded, he also tried not to wince too hard at how awkward he felt.

It was hard to feel comfortable around someone who had told you nonchalantly about killings in the village, someone who was looking at you constantly like you’re prey. Someone who looked like the personification of Lucifer incarnate. Gorgeous and frightening.

“Yeah,” he ended up nodding, eyeing the dark sky. He vaguely wondered if the rains were over now. If the floods would soon go away. If they could leave. “I’m here.”

Kim Jongin smiled then, that wide smile that made something crawl on Kyungsoo’s skin.

“Yes, you are, _mon ami_. You’re here.”

Kyungsoo pursed his lips, burying his hands deeper in his pockets, trying not to fidget too much.

“So what did you want to show me?”

“I will show you the rest of the house and I will show you around the grounds of the Kim Mansion. There’s a lot of history on those grounds, a lot of history seeping into the ground, rooted right here, on the Kim Hills. You look like someone who’d appreciate some good history, no?” Jongin said, pushing himself off the column and peering down at Kyungsoo.

His smile was still wide and Kyungsoo, for the first time, could see something showing in those dark eyes. Something fairly honest and sincere.

“And most importantly, I want to finally introduce myself properly.”

Introduce himself? Kyungsoo blinked when Kim Jongin stretched his hand out in invitation, palm facing upwards with those slender fingers inviting him to hold his hand.

“Shall we?”

Kyungsoo threw a look back towards the house, then back to the man standing in front of him.

The iron grip around his heart was making the thumping dulled, the chill in his veins only becoming colder at the sight of those dark eyes and that sinister grin.

Kyungsoo’s breath hitched when he slowly raised his hand to hold Kim Jongin’s.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cut the chapter in half because it was starting to get way too long! I'll post the other part in the next few days when I finish it~
> 
> Comments are always greatly appreciated ^^


	4. Chapter 4

Kyungsoo threw a cautious look over his shoulder the further they walked down the hill.

The mansion was getting smaller behind them, hauntingly creepy even in the daylight, with the grey storm clouds frowning at it from the skies above. The sight on the opposite side was just as haunting.

Kyungsoo eyed the back of the man who was leading him forward suspiciously. His silver hair was bouncing with every step he took, slender fingers running through it every now and then to keep it away from his eyes. It only added more volume to the dishevelled mess that it already was.

He still felt bad that the other had waited for him so long in the morning. It was probably the main reason he hadn’t weaselled out of his promise from the darkness of the night. Because, as they kept walking through the grounds of the mansion, Kyungsoo kept wondering where exactly they were going, what exactly they were doing, and most importantly – why he was with Jongin alone.

Kyungsoo startled when he felt those dark, inquiring eyes on him, a piercing look he felt straight in his soul, when Jongin halted for a second and waited for him to catch up.

“So,” Kyungsoo started just to break the silence and almost reprimanded himself when his voice broke. “How big is this mansion actually? I don’t even see the fence from here anymore.”

“You wouldn’t,” Jongin agreed as his eyes traced a path that led to the forest. He raised a slender finger to point towards them vaguely. “The grounds go well into the woods, almost until the river. The old staff quarters used to be there.”

Jongin stopped for a second, eyes fixated on the forest as he breathed out. Kyungsoo’s eyebrows narrowed as he looked at the man’s lips spreading into a tiny smile.

“Nothing but an old barrack anymore,” he said and Kyungsoo, again, startled when he directed his gaze towards him. “There is, however, a lovely pond when you head that way. I can show it to you next time.”

“Next time?” Kyungsoo voiced his surprise before he could stop himself.

Jongin thought there was going to be a next time?

Kyungsoo didn’t know how to feel about that. Maybe relieved because he probably wasn’t going to die today. _Damn you, Baekhyun_.

“Not the direction we’re heading in today, I’m afraid,” Jongin shone him a smile, raising his arm to show the way and let Kyungsoo walk in front of him, which he reluctantly did. “This way.”

Only now did he notice the other fence, slightly lower, intricate. He saw statues and he saw flowers, that were somehow still intact, despite the heavy rains.

Kyungsoo eyed Jongin suspiciously. It was no secret that the man seemed to be, for some reason, fascinated with him. Maybe even interested. So maybe if he was trying to get him alone, in a garden, then that wasn’t too bad.

It seemed kind of sweet, actually.

Kyungsoo tried to fight hard with himself to not jump to any conclusions. Kim Jongin was a gorgeous human being, and despite the fact that he was blood chillingly horrifying at moments, he had no doubt that he probably had miles and miles of admirers lining up for him.

Except, they were in the middle of nowhere, and Kyungsoo saw no queues.

He could see the roses as they walked closer – blood red, blooming widely and beautifully. Peeking over the black twisted metal of the intricate low fence.

“This way,” Jongin’s voice brought him out of his trance.

A little confused, Kyungsoo followed after the taller man who had very purposefully avoided the gate of the garden fence and was now instead walking along it, to a hidden corner along the line of the woods.

His eyes lingered on the roses as they kept walking and the flowers remained in the distance behind them. Instead, Jongin kept walking just half a step in front of him, throwing him occasional looks, but not uttering a word.

And Kyungsoo did not want him to.

Because when they approached the forest, he saw the grounds, and he felt a chill making his skin crawl. It had nothing to do with the cold wind, nor with the sun hidden behind angry clouds.

They were at a graveyard.

Those statues he had seen earlier – they were here. Standing tall like guardian angels among the white marble headstones. Some newer. Some older. Crumbling.

Kyungsoo’s eyes shot up towards the biggest statue. It really was an angel.

Its wings were spread out, wide and big. But the angel did not look peaceful. He was holding a sword in his arm, outstretched over the graveyard, as if it was under its protection. The expression on the statue’s face was neutral.

Much like the one Kim Jongin was sporting now as he stopped to a halt and turned to assess his reaction.

_ Shit _.

There went his goddamn hopes for something _normal_.

Kyungsoo’s eyes raked over the grounds in front of him. He had been at graveyards before, of course. But this – it was neatly organized, and there was a unique pattern to the side of every wide headstone. It seemed like a place that was being taken care of consistently.

His eyes travelled to the guardian angel statue in the middle. There were raindrops dripping from the tip of his dark sword.

Kyungsoo felt a lump forming in his throat as he walked forward towards the statue.

Only now did he notice all the little details in the carvings – the fingernails, every crease of skin, the clothes crumpled as if being blown by the winds on the hills. Yet, there were no details on the stone face. Nothing he could read from that neutral expression that was staring into the nothingness.

Kyungsoo looked towards the stone then, the stone darker. There was a symbol at the base of the sword, it looked like a knife blooming from the bed of a rose, flower and weapon tangles together. From there, words were carved along the length of the sword. Words that Kyungsoo did not understand as he ran his fingers along the carving.

“_Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo_,” Jongin’s voice resounded right next to his ear in a quiet whisper and Kyungsoo almost jumped out of his skin as he moved as far away as possible as the stone allowed from the man who had leaned over his shoulder. He threw a look towards Jongin, whose eyes were almost glassed over as he stared at the dark sword. Then, some clarity filled them up as he tore his gaze away from it and towards Kyungsoo instead. His lips raised in a smirk that bared his perfect white teeth. “It’s our family credo.”

Kyungsoo tried to gulp down the lump in his throat as he straightened again. He shot a look towards the carving.

“It’s Latin?” Jongin’s nod was a soundless answer to his question. “What does it mean?”

“If I cannot move heaven, I shall raise hell.”

Jongin spoke it so nonchalantly, that Kyungsoo almost missed it. But there was a little smirk accompanying every syllable, and the waterdrops falling off the tip of the sword were hypnotizing his mind until the words finally sunk in.

Kyungsoo felt smaller as he wrapped his arms around himself at another gush of cold wind. His eyebrows narrowed even more; he could feel the crease forming between them as he tried to step away from the statue.

“Our family is one of the first ones to step on these lands,” Jongin started speaking and his voice was a low and collected string of honey. “Jongdae already told you they were the first to ground the town here back in the 1600s, but what I mean goes way before that. They were some of the first people who settled here. Unfortunately, no exact date has been recorded.”

Kyungsoo breathe din deeply when Jongin turned his back towards him and walked down the little path between the countless graves.

“Until they stopped moving and settled here, we had no records of our family history, but everything since that point has been documented. The old archives are in the family library,” Jongin leaned against a marble headstone nonchalantly and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “According to them, my ancestors were not only involved in the politics of the county they had grounded, they were also involved in military, in business, in production, in farming. They had _created_ this place, and they intended to protect it.”

Jongin motioned for Kyungsoo to come closer and he did, almost reluctantly, until he realized that his feet were moving him forward despite his hesitation. There was something entrancing in Jongin’s voice and the serenity of the silence surrounding them.

“Everything seemed to be going just fine. Until one day, in the middle of a rainless year and a fruitless harvest, the desperate people of the towns here and nearby raised accusing fingers to our family. They had been held responsible for the famine, as they had uttered promises of heaven.”

Jongin stood up again and walked closer to him. He peered down at one of the graves at the end of the line, marble winded and old, crumbling at the edges.

“Kim Jongmin,” the taller uttered as he pointed towards the grave. “Founder of the town and killed by an angry mob.”

Kyungsoo’s eyes lingered on the old marble. There, along the intricate, but crumbling pattern, he saw the same symbol carved into the stone. The knife blooming from a rose.

“Ever since this _unfortunate_ accident, the morals of our family changed.” Jongin said and his voice was light, like he wasn’t talking about hundreds of years of history but about something that occurred on a daily basis. “We protected ourselves first. The village and everybody else came second. I suppose that’s how we came to be.”

Kyungsoo only looked as Jongin ran his hand along the dark stone of the guardian angel’s sword again.

“That’s exactly what our credo means as well. If all else fails, we will stop in front of nothing to protect our own. No matter the cost,” Jongin cheerfully tapped the sword as he looked back to a rather mortified Kyungsoo. He tried to clear his throat and sort out his thoughts, but he found himself unable to as Jongin’s smirk only grew wider. “This is our family’s graveyard. Every Kim who ha lived and died here has been buried on these grounds. One day, I will be right here.”

Kyungsoo snapped his gaze away from the empty spot on the green grass that Kim Jongin so nonchalantly tapped with his foot.

Kyungsoo was confused as Jongin motioned for him to follow him as he started walking away from the graveyard. He snuck one last look towards the angel statue, before turning his back to the marble.

He did not understand what any bit of that information was supposed to mean to him, except that he felt only more confusion forming when it came to the Kims.

Right, he supposed it was kind of cool to know your family’s history, and he supposed it was interesting that a certain act of the past had grown to shape a culture within the family, he supposed. A bond as deep.

Yet, for a boy from the big city, it just felt odd.

“This is Junmyeon’s garden, by the way,” Jongin said as they reached the roses again. He smiled at him, and for once, it was not as creepy as usual. He pushed at the little black gate leading into it and tilted his head slightly. “After you.”

Kyungsoo walked down the little path and inside the garden. There were roses _everywhere_.

All in the same blood-red colour, heavily adorning every corner of the square beautifully. There was a fountain in the middle, but it was not working. The stone was faded and grey, like there had been water there once but not anymore. There were vines growing along the side.

“I saw you looking at the roses earlier,” Jongin said beside him and Kyungsoo hesitantly nodded. “Do you like roses?”

Kyungsoo looked down to the big flower petals again.

Usually, he was not one for flowers. Actually, he had never even paid much attention to flowers before. It was just not something that would interest him. But those roses were beautiful, they were picture-perfect. Even he had to appreciate that.

Before he could even react, Jongin was squatting down. His fingers hovered over the roses, before he stopped on a smaller one. Its petals were not as big, but their colour was deeper. The bloom was perfect.

He produced a little knife out of nowhere, and then the flower had been severed from the ground, and Kim Jongin was rising back up to his full height.

“For you,” he said, and Kyungsoo almost choked on his own spit when the man gracefully presented the flower in front of him. His hand was shaking when he moved it to take the flower. His fingers brushed against Jongin’s, and he felt like thunder had struck him. He hurried to bring the flower closer to himself.

“Thank you,” he uttered, and his voice was merely above a whisper. He cleared his throat, trying to avoid the intense look in Jongin’s eyes. He let out an awkward chuckle. “Won’t your brother be mad about this?”

“I’m sure he’ll understand.”

And that was that, Kyungsoo supposed, as Kim Jongin smiled his ominous smile again and rounded the path. Kyungsoo followed after him, trying to ignore how his heart was drumming in his chest with his fingers locked tightly around the beautiful rose.

His eyes lingered on the fountain then – the same symbol of a rose intertwined with the knife was peeking underneath the vines.

“Hey,” he spoke up and Jongin immediately turned to him with attentive eyes. His entire attention was on him again and Kyungsoo had to fight the wave of panic inside himself. “That symbol – it’s everywhere. What is it?”

Jongin smiled before even seeing what he was pointing at.

“It’s our family’s logo, so to say. An emblem.”

“Why roses?”

“Do you see those hills over there?” Jongin asked instead and pointed towards the hills visible beyond the forests. Kyungsoo nodded. “Those were the first farms of the family when they settled here in the 1600s. Do you know what they grew?”

Kyungsoo’s eyes shot around the garden, and the answer seemed apparent. He raised his eyebrows a little and his fingers tightened around the rose he was holding. Jongin smirked.

“That’s right. Roses. Acres and acres of roses, every year. They harvested the flowers, and from the petals they made a fortune. They sold the oil for perfumes, they dried the petals for tea,” Jongin explained. “And that was the first family business. It was not that common at the time, but the roses allowed them to build a fortune and create everything in this town, bit by bit. It was thanks to the roses and the trade that they later on were able to bring other business into those little towns along the river. Mining, production, leather, textile. There are countless farms, coals and fabrics in those lands_, mon ami_, and they all belong to our family.”

Kyungsoo was about to ask about the knife, but something stopped him.

It was not the raindrop that fell straight on his forehead that did, it was that nudging feeling he had on the inside that prevented him from asking. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer.

Another raindrop followed, hitting him on his nose. Then another. And another.

Jongin looked up towards the skies, as if they had betrayed him, before letting out a sigh.

“We should head back in,” he said, and Kyungsoo nodded absentmindedly.

He started walking towards the mansion as the rain began falling harder on them, and he tried to ignore the fleeting touch of a hand on his back as Jongin appeared beside him and started guiding him back towards the dark house.

By the time they made it to the top of the hill, the rain had started pouring relentlessly, and they were drenched.

Jongin’s hand was a little more insisting on his back as he guided him to the closest entrance of the house, a back door hidden behind the wide and impressive stairs.

Kyungsoo took a few moments to raise a hand and get the water away from his eyes. He pushed his dripping hair back and finally let out a sigh when he opened his eyes.

There were cars here. It took him a couple minutes to realize that they were in a garage.

And yes, there were cars here. At least a dozen of them. Most of them were shiny, sleep black, but some of them were colourful. There was a bloody-red Ferrari just in front of him, the same colour as Junmyeon’s roses.

Kyungsoo’s eyes widened as he registered that all those cars were incredibly luxurious and new. Now, he wasn’t the car nerd out of his friends’ group, that would be Chanyeol. However, even he was impressed by this.

He vaguely remembered Chanyeol nerding out earlier about Jongdae collecting cars. This was the collection, Kyungsoo supposed, a low whistle slipping past his lips. 

“Jongdae’s cars?” he asked, just to confirm.

“Yes,” Jongin’s voice echoed in the garage and Kyungsoo nodded, a little stunned.

“Does he actually drive them all?”

“Sometimes,” Jongin said, and Kyungsoo saw him stepping beside him out of his periphery vision. “He mostly drives the Rolls Royce, though. Most of those are a guilty pleasure of his.”

Well damn, Kyungsoo wanted to say. He wished he could afford a guilty pleasure like this.

But all words got stuck in his throat when he turned to look at Jongin.

There was water dripping from the ends of that freshly tousled silver hair. Kim Jongin’s face was glistening with the droplets of water on it, and his wet black shirt was clinging tightly to his defined chest.

He snapped himself out of his daze when Jongin moved, his arm on his lower back guiding him between the card and to another door on the other side of the garage. When he opened it, Kyungsoo recognized the interior of the mansion – old, winded wood, creaking floors underneath his feet.

Jongin opened a cupboard on the side of the corridor and pulled out a towel. Kyungsoo’s breath caught in his throat yet again when the man took it upon himself to throw it over his head, his hands gliding down the sides as he brought it down his hair.

Kim Jongin was peering down at him with a glint in his black eyes as he rubbed the towel over his dripping wet hair. Occasionally, his thumb brushed against the skin of his face, and Kyungsoo felt like someone was burning him.

Only when Jongin’s hands slid off the ends of the towel did he finally breathe in deeply.

“You’re probably cold,” the man said as he reached out to grab another towel for himself. Kyungsoo refused to admit that he looked like a Greek god when he shook his silver hair into it and then ran a hand through the wet locks again. “Follow me.”

So Kyungsoo did, wordlessly. One hand was holding on to the towel, the other – still tightly gripping the blooming rose.

He did recognize that they were, in fact, inside the Kim Mansion. However, the corridors Jongin was leading him through were unfamiliar. They were high and dimly lit with candlelight, and Kyungsoo vaguely wondered who even had the time to come and change these candles every day. That sounded like a hassle, considering the size of this mansion.

His eyes, however, focused on the pictures between the candelabras. They were vastly different from the paintings adorning the hallway of the room where he was staying with his friends.

Those pictures here – they were no landscapes. They were portraits. On each picture, one or two, or even more figures standing together. Some of the pictures seemed incredibly old. As they walked down the hallway, they seemed to become even older. From the winded canvas, to the old-fashioned clothing the people in them were wearing.

But there was also something strikingly similar in all those pictures – the expression of everybody was that same mask on the face of the Kim brothers. Unreadable expression masking every emotion on those beautiful, porcelain faces.

“Family portraits?” Kyungsoo asked, _concluded_.

“That’s right,” Jongin confirmed. He pointed to the beginning of the hallway where the newer ones had been. “From the most recent ones to the very first inhabitants of the house- “

“Kim Jongmin.” Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow as they walked past the last portrait in the hallway – undeniably, the oldest one. The paint was fading in several spots, but he could tell despite that that the man in the picture was standing tall and proud, the dignity and elegance in his posture carried down all those portraits and ingrained in the man standing in front of him. Jongin smirked, obviously pleased that Kyungsoo had remembered.

Kyungsoo walked into the spacey hall at the end of the hallway first, and Jongin followed after him quietly. There was a fire cracking in the firepit, and Kyungsoo was instinctively drawn closer to its warmth. He stretched his hands out, sighing at the gentle feeling of its warmth spreading across his cold, wet chest.

He let his eyes wander then – towards the walls that were covered in shelves from floor to ceiling. There were books lined up all around him, and his mouth fell open as he tried to calculate the size of this place. There must have been thousands of books in here.

“Let me guess again,” Kyungsoo said when he felt Jongin approaching him silently again. He was getting better at this. “The family library?”

Jongin smirked and Kyungsoo, for once, allowed himself to return that smile. The fire was throwing dancing shadows on Kim Jongin’s face.

“The archives of our family history are over there, in the locked section,” Jongin pointed towards the stairs towards the end of the hall leading to a little secluded area of the library. “The rest is mostly classical literature from all decades and centuries. We studied it when were younger.”

“You…you studied all of this?”

Jongin didn’t seem fazed at all when he nodded. Kyungsoo let out a breath.

No wonder Jongin was talking like he had come out of a Shakespeare sonnet.

Kyungsoo wandered away from the fire and towards the books. He reached out to run a hand over their covers, as his eyes dances around the hall. He vaguely noticed Jongin approaching the cabinet with drinks beside the firepit.

His eyes instead focused on the glass cabinets between some of the bookshelves. There were jewels in them. Like, big fat Victorian-style necklaces with massive jewels on them, catching the lights of the fire and shining mysteriously.

Kyungsoo shook his head in disbelief. A family that was so carelessly buying all those expensive sports cars, a family that was so casually keeping stones like this casually displayed between ancient books.

“You still run all those businesses you mentioned earlier?” Kyungsoo asked, curiosity burning inside him. It was making sense bit by bit now, he supposed. If they really had been owning all those businesses for centuries it was no wonder this family had a fortune like this.

“Yes, me and my brothers do,” Jongin said quietly, but his voice echoed and reached him. “Whiskey?”

“Sure,” Kyungsoo agreed, a little stunned, as he pulled the towel closer around his neck. He looked away from the walls and turned back to Jongin, who was pouring the amber drink in two crystal glasses.

He didn’t flinch this time when their fingers brushed as he picked up the glass from Jongin’s hand. The other man kept his eyes trained on him even as he threw his head back to take a sip.

The alcohol was hard and it burned down his throat, but it worked on warming him up almost as instantly as the crackling branches of wood in the fire.

Kyungsoo sat down on the big couch by the fireplace and looked curiously at Jongin who descended next to him, the fabric of the couch dipping under his weight.

“I haven’t seen you working.”

“It’s mostly Junmyeon and Jongdae who take care of the business,” Jongin vaguely replied, throwing him a playful smirk. “I’m still studying.”

Kyungsoo highly doubted that, and judging by the dancing smile on Jongin’s lips, he was also joking. Kyungsoo looked down, fingers tightening around the rose.

“So that’s your plan? Working for your family’s businesses?”

Jongin raised the glass to his lips and took a sip, and Kyungsoo got distracted by how sharp his jawline was. He momentarily forgot about his question, and the lack of an answer.

Those dark eyes were on him then, staring right at his, stunning him into silence and shock. Kim Jongin was smiling, and it was just as terrifying as every other time, but Kyungsoo found himself actually blinded by it.

“What is _your_ plan?”

Kyungsoo startled at the question and mostly at the intrigue in Jongin’s voice.

He shifted in his seat, now suddenly hyperaware of how close Jongin was sitting next to him and how he was still very blatantly staring at him.

“Uh, I study architecture,” he blurted out. “I’ll probably graduate next semester. Then I guess I’ll start working.”

“_Fascinating_.”

Kyungsoo threw the man a look. He seemed genuinely interested, which was odd, because he didn’t think there was anything interesting about his studies or future plans.

“What about your family?”

Kyungsoo let out a chuckle then. A breathy, confused one. After what he had witnessed in the past two hours, from the graveyard to the gardens, to the family portraits and libraries – well, he could definitely say with ease that his family, in comparison to this one, was perfectly ordinary.

“I’m sorry to disappoint, but I’m afraid we’re not that interesting,” Kyungsoo shrugged. “I lived with my mom and dad. I have one older brother. No cousins, I’m afraid. And we don’t have an intricate family tree like yours. Or a credo, for that matter.”

Kim Jongin laughed then.

A gentle sound, mixing with the air around them, and piercing right through Kyungsoo’s heart.

His smile was beautiful.

“As I said, that’s fascinating,” he ended up saying and Kyungsoo blinked quickly, relaxing a little in his spot. “What about your friends?”

“My friends?” Kyungsoo breathed, eyes vaguely shooting upwards. “Well, they’re certainly a piece of work. Chanyeol is big and…loud. Messy. He’s all over the place, really. And Baekhyun is…. well. He’s pretty much the same.”

Kyungsoo wrinkled his nose a little as he reached that conclusion out loud. He looked down to the glass in his hand.

“They’re quite different from me, but we get along well. We’ve known each other for years. They’re as close as family.”

Jongin was soaking up every word with dedicated attention, face slowly morphing back into a mask of unreadable emotions.

Kyungsoo was about to ask about Jongin’s friends, trying to pick the right words, but something interrupted him.

A sound. Carried through the old walls, down the dark hallways.

He thought for a moment he hadn’t heard right, but it resounded again, and he straightened in his seat.

_ A moan _.

Loud, although silenced by the walls. Echoing through the old construction of the wing, almost as loud as the storm outside.

Another moan. A gasp. A loud cry. _A moan_. A moan. _Another_.

“Ah,” Jongin leaned forward and set his glass on the little table, breath escaping his lips. “Guess Minseok finally stole his husband away from your friend with the big ears.”

Kyungsoo felt the heat rising up his neck as he tried to tune out the loud moans resounding in the house, carried by the old wood. He felt every hair on his body standing at the sounds of a bed frame hitting against the walls.

“Chanyeol,” Kyungsoo said, trying to let Jongin know the name of the ‘friend with the big ears’ but his voice was quiet, almost a whisper. His cheeks were burning as his eyes started shooting around the room.

He felt like he was intruding on something that he wasn’t supposed to hear.

A married couple was having sex somewhere in the house, and they were in no way trying to be subtle about it, by the sounds of it, and they in no way had to be – they were at home, after all. But Kyungsoo felt the heat taking over his face, and suddenly he wasn’t cold anymore. He felt embarrassed and he supposed his face was red.

“We should probably…uh…. get away from here,” he shifted, ready to move, but his eyes fell on Jongin then.

The other was sitting there, unfazed, one leg crossed over the other, as he kept looking at him with a little smirk stretching his lips in a thoughtful smile.

“Why?”

Kyungsoo felt a wave of heat washing over his face again. Was Jongin deaf? Did he not hear his brother and brother-in-law going at it?

He struggled to find the right words, when Jongin’s smirk only widened. His teeth caught the light of the fire.

“Is this making you uncomfortable?” Jongin asked, vaguely waving his hand around the room. It’s as if he wasn’t sure where the sound was coming from either. Maybe he didn’t.

Kyungsoo wanted to nod madly and say that yes, this was in fact making him uncomfortable. But for once, he measured his reaction before doing something stupid.

“Not uncomfortable. I do not wish to intrude on something private, though,” he said, and his voice was hoarse.

“The sounds of passion are not uncommon in this house,” Jongin said, whispered almost, just as nonchalantly as before. His eyes were calculating. “Do not worry. They would not think of it as intruding on something private.”

As if Kyungsoo would have ever brought it up. He blushed madly when another loud cry resounded in the room.

In the back of his mind, he vaguely wondered just how great the sex was to elicit sweet sounds like this. It was almost jealousy that tugged at his rationality for a second, before he had to snap himself out of his daze.

He downed the rest of the whiskey in one go, hoping the burn would distract him from the sinful moans.

Jongin was still looking at him with an inquiring look and a fascinated little smile.

“I wonder…”

Kyungsoo’s gaze shot towards Jongin, who just shook his head, wet strands of silver hair falling over his eyes. It seemed like his smile only widened for a fraction of a moment, before he willed it away and stood up from the couch.

He spread his hand out to help Kyungsoo get up. Kyungsoo eyed his hand suspiciously, but took it anyways, trying not to mind the fact that every time he touched the other man’s skin something inside him screamed.

He stiffened when the pleasured cries became louder.

“Let’s get out of here,” Jongin said, and for the first time, Kyungsoo was actually _eager_ to follow him.

They walked through hallways unknown to him, and Kyungsoo let himself breathe the further they went and the more distant those moans became.

He felt relief washing over him when they stopped at a rather large staircase, no sound but the thudding of heavy raindrops against old wood to be heard around them.

He breathed in deeply, looking around himself again. Jongin was thoughtfully looking at the staircase, before throwing a curious glance towards Kyungsoo. Like he was assessing him.

Eventually, he seemed to decide something, because he nodded, and it wasn’t at Kyungsoo. It was like he was having an internal monologue, questioning himself, before heading up the stairs.

Kyungsoo breathed in deeply, before following after him. The wood was creaking with every step he took. The hallways were brighter here – there were more candles.

Kyungsoo blinked when yet another long hallway was unveiled in front of them. He was losing track of all the places they had walked inside the house. He was utterly lost, and if Jongin wasn’t guiding him through this maze, he would have probably had a breakdown by now.

“How many rooms are there?” he mused aloud, and Jongin turned around, his smile once again, free of its horrors. He looked almost normal, a very attractive, very hot young man, who was just walking backwards and smiling at him with slightly raised eyebrows.

“I don’t know. Would you like to count them?”

Kyungsoo breathed out in something akin to a scoff when Jongin shone him a wider grin, before turning back around. He shrugged his wide shoulders, the towel still hanging over them.

“The mansion was built for a big family and an army of servants. It’s too big, and sometimes impossibly frustrating to take care of,” Jongin said, and there was a hint of annoyance in his voice. Kyungsoo could understand that. “I’m the only one who comes up to this wing.”

Kyungsoo’s compassion immediately evaporated and suspicion took over again.

Jongin, however, answered his unspoken questions even before he could ask them.

“It’s quiet, and I get to focus on the things that I enjoy.”

As he said that, he halted in front of a door. He seemed to assess Kyungsoo with one last calculating look, before pushing it open

Kyungsoo hesitantly stepped forward, not quite understanding that heavy look in Jongin’s eyes, quite different from the joking one from just moments ago.

When he stepped forward, he understood why.

The room was spacious, not too different from the library they had been in earlier, albeit smaller. There was a dying fire in the fireplace in the distant corner, a black leather couch in front of it. The carpet was a soft, red velvet. The chandelier hanging in the middle of the ceiling was an intricate beauty of teardrop crystals throwing blinking shimmers across the walls.

But it was not all that that made Kyungsoo’s blood freeze.

It was the walls.

Because, unlike the library, the walls here were covered in knives.

Not like the ancient antique swords in the hallway with the guest room, old, catching webs.

No. The knives here were lined up carefully on the walls, displayed along with their covers. They were shining, not rusty like the hallway swords. Like someone was intently taking care of them unlike the rest of the winded old house.

His eyes travelled around the walls.

From short sharp knives, to longer and slimmer blades. Some were curved. Some were thin. Some were thicker. There was gold lining up the length of some of the weapons. Others has words carved into them, much like the angel’s blade from the graveyard.

The covers of some were old leather, cracked and weathered. Some others were covered in rubies and emeralds.

Kyungsoo tried to get himself together, to clear his mind, as he looked away from all those blades. Tried not to think about it too hard, as he inspected the rest of the room. There were targets set up across that wall. There were holes in some of them, and Kyungsoo’s blood froze at the imagery of someone throwing the short blades at them with precise accuracy.

_ You’d be surprised _, Jongin’s voice rang in his head and Kyungsoo felt the chills running up his spine. Jongdae’s laughter was resounding in his mind.

His fingers were so tight around the stem of the rose, he did not even care about the thorn that was stubbornly digging into his skin.

His eyes then fell on the other corner of the room. There was a large piano there, with pipes rising all the way to the ceiling majestically.

He was pretty sure he was not wet from the rain anymore but that it was cold sweat he was breaking out in when he turned to look at the man who had grown awfully silent behind him.

Kim Jongin was looking at him and his expression was unreadable. It felt like he was trying to read his face, trying to understand what he was thinking, and Kyungsoo had to gather his entire willpower to not jump to conclusions.

“You play the piano?” he asked instead, and something about Kim Jongin’s mask cracked.

He blinked quickly against him, seemingly confused for a few moments, as his eyes trailed to the instrument.

Then, he lowered his head, and let out a dumbfounded chuckle, a breath mixing with the low cracks of the fire.

“That’s an organ. And yes, I play it,” he looked up with his head still lowered. His hair was falling over his face, and he looked more thrillingly horrifying than ever when he smirked yet again. “I can’t believe that’s the first thing you’re asking.”

Kyungsoo let out a breath, as he nodded mostly to himself.

It was good that Kim Jongin himself was acknowledging that it was, in fact, weird to be in a room covered in knives, and to ask about the music instrument first.

“Figured It would be rude to address the elephant in the room,” Kyungsoo mumbled under his breath. He shot Jongin a look. “Those are…yours?”

“Yes,” Jongin said, quite proudly, if Kyungsoo heard it right too. “I collect them. Just like Jongdae collects cars.”

_ Yeah, but cars at least aren’t creepy. Cars are cool. _

“Uh huh,” was what Kyungsoo said out loud instead, the chills still crawling up his neck.

“Many of them are antiques,” Jongin said, as he headed with spring in his step towards one of the walls. He reached out and detached a slightly curved hand knife from the wall. He brought it over to Kyungsoo. He seemed to take the hint, stretching out his hand to accept the knife from the other man. It was heavy in his hand. “I got them mostly through auctions. Some of them are really old. This one’s an Ottoman dagger from the 19th century.”

Kyungsoo forgot momentarily about his shock and looked down to the silver mounted dagger in his hand. If Jongin hadn’t told him how old it was, he wouldn’t have been able to tell.

It was shining, clean and taken care of, like new.

Jongin took the knife back from Kyungsoo’s hand and played with it between his fingers absentmindedly. He was looking at him curiously, seemingly careful about his movements and gestures.

Kyungsoo nodded slowly.

“So, you…just collect them, right?”

Jongin’s eyes flickered towards the targets, and his lip curled in yet another smirk. Kyungsoo shivered in his place.

“For the most part.”

Kyungsoo, beyond his initial shock, would have been so utterly fascinated with the different daggers in the room – from different corners of the world, from different eras and ages. But Kim Jongin’s presence unnerved him in every way possible, and he felt his shoulders tensing up.

“It’s a hobby,” Jongin said then, and his smile was fading slowly, as he left the dagger in its rightful place and straightened up again. “If you’d like, I can tell you about it some more.”

Kyungsoo looked around the room, before hesitantly nodding.

Jongin seemed, for all the world, ecstatic when he clapped his hands together.

“Wonderful!” he smiled, and then moved towards him. “Maybe tomorrow, though. My brothers will start wondering soon where we have disappeared. And we don’t want your friends to worry, now, do we?”

_ Shit. _

Kyungsoo had completely forgotten about Baekhyun and Chanyeol. Especially Baekhyun, who was probably losing his mind right now.

“Right.”

It was quiet as they made their way through the house again. Even the storm outside had calmed down a little.

Kyungsoo felt relief filling his lungs when he _finally_ saw a hallway that he recognized. The one that led down to the kitchen and the stairway up to the guest room.

“I shall go refresh myself before supper,” Jongin said, and he was back to standing tall and proud and elegant and beautiful in front of him.

“Uh, yeah. Me too. Gotta change out of these,” he picked at his wet T-shirt, before clearing his throat awkwardly. He ended up nodding, mostly to himself. His eyes travelled down to the rose he was holding, then up to Jongin, who was not looking away from him. “Thank you. For the walk. It was-…it was very interesting.”

“Was it, now?”

Kyungsoo contemplated for one short second, before he nodded. It was. Slightly disturbing at times, very confusing. But interesting. There was no doubt about that.

“Thank you,” he repeated.

Jongin seemed like he wanted to reach out and grab his hand again for a moment. In fact, he moved to do so, before he stopped himself. His fingers retreated elegantly, as he simply leaned against the wall.

There was a ghost of a smile on his lips.

“_De rien, mon chér_.”

Kyungsoo was breathing heavily, he realized, as he heard nothing else but his own deep breaths. His French was pretty limited to _oui, no_ and _baguette_, but even he knew what _mon chér_ meant.

And surprisingly, he did not feel odd about this.

Instead, he felt the same heat from earlier rising up his neck again. He hurried to move before he would embarrass himself, before his face would turn pink after the little call of endearment.

“I’ll see you downstairs in a bit,” he ended up saying, and Kim Jongin’s smile just widened a little bit. He nodded, the silver falling in his face again, and Kyungsoo took that as his cue to turn around and hurry up the stairs.

He could feel a pair of eyes fixed on his back until he rounded the corner.

He leaned against the wall, the strength leaving his body at once. He felt the blush painting his cheeks the colour of the morning sky.

_ Why _ was he blushing? _Why_ was his heart racing?

_ He’s really hot _ , his brain supplied unhelpfully. _Too hot. Like an Abercrombie & Fitch model._

Kyungsoo tried not to think about the wet fabric of that black shirt clinging to well defined pecs.

Instead, his mind raced to a graveyard. To a room full of weapons. To a demonic smile.

_ You’re supposed to be freaked out like Baekhyun, _ he tried to scold himself. _Why are you getting turned on instead?!_

He reached up to press a hand against his forehead, trying to regulate his breathing.

He really needed to get himself together.

After a deep breath to steady himself, he pushed the door of the guest room open with a loud creaking sound.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun were sitting on the bed, with a stack of cards between them. Baekhyun jumped at the sound of the door opening, Chanyeol merely looked back with curiosity.

“Where the hell were you?!” Baekhyun’s voice was piercing, but low and controlled, as he dropped the cards at once, game forgotten. “You’ve been gone for hours!”

Kyungsoo only took note of the darkness in the room. He peeked outside the window. The skies were getting darker, and not only because of the stormy clouds. It was twilight.

“I was worried sick-“

“I told you he was fine.”

“You have no idea what thoughts went through my head when you went off alone with that freak!”

“Here we go again…”

Kyungsoo tuned out the voices of his best friends bickering behind him, as he looked outside the window again. He let out a breath.

He hadn’t realized that he had spent so much time with Jongin outside.

His eyes travelled from the forest to the hills he had walked earlier. There, in the distance, he could see the graveyard and the garden. He could see the rose hills.

He had to bite on his lip to stop himself from thinking about it any further.

Clothes. He just needed to change and then go downstairs for dinner with everybody. He wouldn’t have to spend time with Jongin alone again.

_ But why wouldn’t you mind that _?

Kyungsoo set his jaw, as he turned around, ripping his eyes away from the forest. Baekhyun and Chanyeol were looking at him.

“What?” Kyungsoo asked dumbly, and Chanyeol just shrugged, going back to his cards.

Baekhyun, however, looked at him with the gaze of a hawk. Then, his eyes slid down to his hand.

Kyungsoo blinked in surprise when his fingers tightened, and the thorn dug into his skin again. He looked down towards the rose.

“What is _that_?!”

Kyungsoo just breathed in and shook his head.

He was pretty sure he didn’t have a proper reply to his friend’s question anyways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uuuh yeah idek....
> 
> I'm so sorry this update took so long. You might have seen on my twitter, but I'm actually struggling quite a lot with this fic. I never expected it to get the intense response that it did, both on AFF and AO3. I started it out as merely a joke, but the response it got was so great that now I feel like I would disappoint all of you with where it's heading. I am trying to think of a way to direct this so it would have more of a plot than originally planned, but I am not sure if I will be able to do that. I will try my best, regardless. 
> 
> With that being said, please comment and let me know what you think~
> 
> If you want to talk, I'm on twitter: @jongnugget ^^


	5. Chapter 5

Just as the night before, a beautifully plated meal was waiting on the large table in the dining room, a big roast with vegetables and various plates with side dishes on the side. Jongdae returned with a bottle of red wine, as Jongin just spun the knife in his hand before leaning down to cut the meat. The silver caught the flickering lights of the melting candles, and Kyungsoo’s breath hitched when those pitch-black eyes found his. 

The difference this time was around that he was actually hungry – maybe it was all the walking. Maybe it was the delicious scent of the exquisite food. Or maybe just the fact that he felt somewhat calmer now than he had the day before. 

Dinner was quiet. 

He couldn’t bring himself to look up. Just across the table were sitting Jongdae and his husband, looking at each other and touching their hands every few seconds. Especially after what he had heard earlier – what they all had heard earlier – he felt like he was witnessing something he wasn’t supposed to. He wanted to sink lower in his chair, avoiding eye contact at all cost. 

And then there was Jongin, sitting next to him. When he had joined everyone downstairs for dinner after they had parted, Kyungsoo had almost gasped at the sight of the man. He had dressed up, and _oh_, did that man clean up nicely, _God damn it_. His defined chest was peeking through the slit in his loose white shirt. The black leather pants were hugging his long legs tightly, accentuating every graceful move. Those silver rings on his fingers were catching the light of the flames, shimmering in the mostly dark room. 

And he was _staring_ at him. Jongin wasn’t even trying to be subtle about it. He was sitting next to him, and downright staring, his eyes not moving away from him for even a moment. Kyungsoo could swear if looks could burn he’d have a hole gaping through his head right now. 

For the majority of dinner, he had settled on just staring down at the roast in his plate, absolutely refusing to look up. He was enjoying the food instead, not realizing how hungry he had gotten until the plate was empty and the clattering of utensils around him diffused into nothingness, the distant howls of the wind and the gentle taps of the rain on the old wood becoming background noise. 

“So,” Junmyeon started, and Kyungsoo flinched at the sudden voice breaking through the silence. “How was your walk?” 

Kyungsoo looked up from his plate then. Surely enough, Junmyeon was looking at him, with a barely visible stone-cold smile stretching the lips on his pretty face. He was firmly holding his glass of wine, his eyes trained on him as he merely raised one perfect eyebrow. 

“Did you enjoy my gardens?”

Kyungsoo straightened up a little in his seat, blinking quickly. 

“How…how did-“

“You did leave some traces behind.”

Kyungsoo’s eyes followed the man’s hand as he reached into his vest’s pocket and picked up the sturdy stem of a flower. He could see the thorns even from here. And the clear cut of a little, sharp knife. 

_ Damn it _ , Kyungsoo felt his jaw setting as he whipped his head around to glare at Jongin. Junmyeon was probably angry, and his younger brother was just sitting next to him, elegantly leaning his head on his hand, a little smirk playing on his lips. He looked like he did not have a single worry in this entire world. 

Junmyeon’s laugh was dry and quiet, but it caused Kyungsoo to look at him again. He tried to utilize his sorry face to the best, when the man just put the stem on the table, before taking a sip of his wine. 

“I hope it was worth it.”

Kyungsoo was about to blurt out an apology. Maybe throw in a compliment in there to redeem himself. Junmyeon’s gardens really were beautiful, after all. 

Chanyeol, however, beat him to it with his loud and booming voice. 

“Oh, you have a garden? That’s so cool. I used to grow beans when I was a kid.”

“Really.” Junmyeon said, not an ounce of interest or fascination audible in his voice. 

“Yeah,” Chanyeol confirmed excitedly, either too dumb or too good for his own good to catch on the lack of absolute disinterest. “So, you’re a gardener. You collect cars, and you collect knives…what about you?”

Kyungsoo saw Chanyeol looking at Minseok rather enthusiastically, like he really, _really_ wanted to know what his deal was. Baekhyun had a wary look in his eyes. 

Minseok’s eyes were sharp and so cat-like, the resemblance was uncanny. Except, the look in them was shockingly cold and measuring, he seemed like a cat that would jump to tear your face off any second. His features were delicate and fine, and Kyungsoo wondered how something so beautiful could make your blood freeze in your veins with a single glare. 

Kyungsoo startled a little when Minseok shoves his fork in the meat. 

“I do enjoy some hunting.”

Not even Chanyeol was dense enough to miss the hostile undertones as Minseok glared at him, not minding his husband’s hand gliding around his waist and his lips trailing a kiss on the column of his neck. 

“Oh, hunting?” Chanyeol tried, and a quiet chuckle escaped his lips. His eyes were shooting around, his big hands busy playing with a napkin. He seemed nervous. “Hunting what?”

Minseok’s smile was even more petrifying than his glare, and Kyungsoo promptly looked away when the lights of the candles flickered on the man’s porcelain skin. 

“Why be picky?”

_ Okay _ , Kyungsoo thought to himself in a rush. _Not to self. Don’t even _look_ at Kim Jongdae. You don’t want to get on his husband’s bad side_. 

Baekhyun cleared his throat. 

“Uh, I was thinking,” he started, successfully attracting everybody’s attention and diffusing some of the tension behind Minseok’s sharp gaze. “I was thinking about going to the town tomorrow?”

Nobody said a thing, and Baekhyun seemed hesitant as his eyes travelled through every face on the table. The Kims didn’t seem like they actually cared, as Junmyeon just swirled the wine in his glass again, visibly more entertained by the ruby red liquid than the conversation, Jongdae was very much busy breathing into his husband’s skin, and Jongin was _still_ staring at him. 

Kyungsoo was the only one with a reaction. He tilted his head, the sigh almost escaping his lips as he threw a compassionate look in his friend’s direction. 

Baekhyun was just trying to get away from the house again. Oddly enough, Kyungsoo couldn’t blame him. 

“I’ve been thinking about stocking up on some things. I think we also need to buy some tools for the engine in case it fails us on the road again…” Baekhyun’s voice trailed off at the lack of any responses. He clapped his hands and tried to force himself to smile. “So if you guys have any bikes we could borrow or something, that would be great.”

“You can’t ride a bike all the way down to town,” Jongin said and it was the first time he spoke during this dinner, and his voice was so husky, so deep and alluring, so close, that Kyungsoo almost jumped out of his skin. When he looked at him, he was leaning back in his chair, one arm thrown over the chair’s back. The shirt was stretched over his chest, and Kyungsoo forced himself to look away. _Immediately_. “The roads will be muddy, and the ascend back to the mansion will be damn near impossible. Especially if it rains again.”

“I’m…sure we’ll figure it out.”

Jongin measured Baekhyun with a look, before his eyes met his again. Kyungsoo’s breath got caught in his throat, when something shone in those black eyes, before Jongin smiled. His teeth were white and perfect, reflecting the lights from the candles. 

“I have some business to take care of in town,” he said, and he was talking to them all but he was explicitly looking at Kyungsoo as he kept speaking. “I could drive you, if you’d like.”

“Yeah?” Baekhyun’s voice was quiet and almost shaky. “That’s great.”

He did not sound happy, but Kyungsoo was too busy nodding slowly to pay attention to that.

* * *

The ride down the small road to the town on the following morning was quiet. 

Kyungsoo was sitting at the front seat next to Jongin, trying to wrap himself up in the black sweater from Junmyeon while trying his best to not look at Jongin or mind the deafening silence in the car. Baekhyun had been unnecessarily jittery since they woke up until Chanyeol snapped at him that he was being, yet again, ridiculous. Now even those two were frowning, which was usually not a sight to be seen. 

Kyungsoo tried to contain the sigh as he looked out the window. It was drizzling outside, the skies grey and dark even in the morning. The raindrops were streaming down the window in random patterns, and Kyungsoo’s entire being felt so heavy and tired. 

“Are you hungry?”

Kyungsoo blinked at the sudden question that ripped through the silence.

Jongin’s eyes were fixed on the road as he drove off the hill’s road onto the cobbles of the small town instead. 

“A little,” he said when nobody else replied. 

“I know a place where we can get a late breakfast.”

“Oh, late breakfast!” Chanyeol finally exclaimed. “_Brunch_. Nice!”

Kyungsoo observed the little scowl flashing through Jongin’s face as he threw a distasteful glance towards the rear mirror. His jaw was sharp. He vaguely heard a sniff from the back. Most probably Baekhyun. 

“That sounds good,” Kyungsoo nodded quietly, and Kim Jongin’s expression was vastly different from that only seconds ago. He smiled, mostly to himself, as he kept driving down the road. 

* * *

From the moment Jongin parked the shiny car that stood out against the old buildings and the quiet atmosphere, Kyungsoo could feel people’s eyes on them. 

Just like the first time. 

They saw the car, they saw Kim Jongin standing tall next to it in his fitted coat and his black boots. He was holding the folded umbrella in one hand like a cane, as he promptly looked around the square. Everybody avoided his gaze, as they scattered away. Kyungsoo pursed his lips.

Jongin led them to a little, remote corner of the square with a little shop. The bell rang when he held the door open for Kyungsoo to enter before him. 

Much like the square, people obviously looked alert when they saw him. Except, they could not run away here. 

“A table for four, please,” Kim Jongin said, and the little woman behind the counter immediately sprung up. Everybody looked uncomfortable as they passed by them, and Kyungsoo decided to just keep his gaze trained on the ground. 

“This place is cute,” Chanyeol commented obliviously when they sat down. Jongin just raised his eyebrows for a flash of a moment, before pulling out one of the chairs. 

The smile he sent towards Kyungsoo was soft and little, and Kyungsoo felt a shiver up his spine. He nodded his head soundlessly in gratitude, when he sat down. Jongin’s arms brushed from the chair on his shoulders for a mere second, before he sat down next to him. 

“Scrambled eggs with a toast. Oh, and an ice tea, please.” Chanyeol’s smile was wide and infectious, usually, but the waitress seemed like this was the last place she wanted to be, throwing nervous glances towards Jongin every now and then. 

“Same for me,” Baekhyun mumbled, and it was the first thing he’d said ever since they left the house together. 

“I’ll have the pancakes,” Kyungsoo decided after a quick look at the menu. 

The girl noted that down, before throwing yet another nervous glance towards the man clad in all black, as he fixed his umbrella on the back of the chair and left the briefcase he was carrying on the ground. 

“Just a tea for me. Black.”

She seemed almost relieved when she finally turned around and disappeared faster than Kyungsoo would have thought possible. 

He threw a curious glance towards Jongin, only to startle when their eyes met. 

Jongin’s smile was equal parts teasing and mysterious, as he simply raised his hand to fix the cuff of his black silky shirt. 

“So, you said you have some work in the town,” Chanyeol leaned over the table, his bubbly personality taking over again after his twenty minutes of brooding in the car. 

“Just some errands to run,” Jongin replied monotonously. His smile was cold and didn’t reach his eyes when he directed it towards Chanyeol. “Family business. Wouldn’t want to bore you.”

Chanyeol looked like he had about a thousand more questions to ask, but something about Jongin’s completely disinterested demeanour must have stopped him from spurting them all out.

That, or the waitress coming back with their drinks. 

“Do you know where we can buy instruments?” Chanyeol asked between sips, and Jongin looked at him again. He had the expression of a man who was trying to get rid of rodents but was miserably failing. 

“Do I look like a tour guide?”

Chanyeol let out a laugh, clasping a heavy hand on Baekhyun’s back. 

“We’ll find something,” he let out with his booming voice at the same time Baekhyun winced and threw him a quick glare. 

Kyungsoo was grateful that the food arrived then. The stack of pancakes in his plate was big and the syrup dripping off the sides was enough to make him excitedly grab the fork. 

They ate mostly in silence. Chanyeol would occasionally let out a hum around a mouthful of toast. Even Baekhyun mumbled out how delicious the ice tea was. He seemed a little less snappy by the time his plate was all clear. 

And then there was Jongin. 

Kyungsoo could feel the man’s gaze on him as he watched him eat, and he felt uneasy in his seat. He even had half a mind to offer some pancakes to Jongin, but he could already imagine himself stuttering through half of that sentence and also Baekhyun’s judging eyes. He refrained from offering anything, and instead ignored the heavy feeling of someone so intently watching him. Jongin wasn’t even drinking his tea. 

“Well, that was good,” Chanyeol leaned back in his chair. “It really is a good place, Jongin!”

“I know.”

“We should get going,” Baekhyun clapped his hands then, and reached to grab his bag. He was about to pull out a wallet, when Jongin raised his hand to stop him. His fingers looked elegant with all those silver rings adorning them. 

“Please. I invited you. It’s my treat.”

Baekhyun seemed a little stunned for a second, before his fingers tightened around the wallet stubbornly. 

“No, that’s alright, w-“

“I insist.”

There must have been something about Jongin’s gaze that Kyungsoo missed, because Baekhyun eventually let go of his hard-headed glare and dropped the wallet back into his bag. 

“Thanks,” he said, rather reluctantly and awkwardly, and Jongin just smiled that typical cold smile he shared with the rest of his brothers. 

“Very well,” Jongin said, as he moved to get up. It acted as a cue for everybody else to move as well. Kyungsoo clumsily raised himself, as Jongin picked up his briefcase and umbrella and headed for the counter. 

“A _word_, please?!” 

Kyungsoo blinked in the same time long fingers dug into his arm and dragged him forward. Baekhyun stepped out of the little place under the scrutinizing and measuring looks of everybody else around them. 

“What?” Kyungsoo frowned when Baekhyun finally let go of him. 

His best friend crossed his arms over his chest, before letting out a puff of breath. 

“You’re coming with us.” 

“If you’re going to really be buying shit for Velma, then I’m most definitely not.” 

“Don’t call her that!” Baekhyun scoffed, and Kyungsoo almost rolled his eyes. Baekhyun’s truck was so old and so tragic, Velma was the name he had given her jokingly back in their freshman year. The redhead just sighed, throwing a look over his shoulder. “You’re going with _him_ then?” 

Kyungsoo turned back to see Jongin settling the payment. Chanyeol was standing next to him, like an overexcited puppy. He was speaking, and even when he couldn’t see Jongin’s face he could tell there was an impatient and annoyed scowl on his handsome face. 

He then looked back to Baekhyun. There it was, the judging glint he had been fearing. And he hadn’t even shared his pancakes. Now he felt like an asshole. Great. 

“Look, Baek…is there a problem?”

Baekhyun set his jaw, shifting his weight. His arms only tightened in his firm stance. 

“He just…he is _odd_, Kyungsoo. Him and his family. They all rub me the wrong way,” Baekhyun gestured vaguely towards the window, as he kept speaking in hushed whispers. “I mean, you told me about those knives he showed you yourself! The graveyards too. What am I supposed to think after all that?”

“I don’t know!” Kyungsoo interjected, rather loudly. He stiffened when the few people around them threw them quick glances, and he almost cursed. He shook his head, as he let out a breath. When he looked at Baekhyun again, he controlled his voice. “I don’t know. But if they wanted to hurt us, don’t you think they have had enough opportunities to do so already?”

Baekhyun seemed entirely unconvinced, and borderline hysterical, as he threw yet another look towards the shop. Kyungsoo breathed in deeply. 

“He won’t hurt me,” he said, rather sure, as he tried to force himself to smile a little. It came easier to him than he had expected. “You know, I think he actually kinda likes me.”

Baekhyun let out a scoff. 

“_That’s_ what worries me,” his best friend said, and Kyungsoo’s eyes just softened when Baekhyun shot him another look. Sharp and inquiring. “Do _you_ like him? Is this why you keep hanging out with him?”

Kyungsoo opened his mouth to reply, but the ring of the bell from the shop’s door behind them interrupted him. 

He wrapped his arms around himself, fingers digging into the sweater, when he sensed Jongin standing next to him, straight and tall, elegant, with his black coat flowing around him. 

His eyes were sharp and inquiring as they travelled from him to Baekhyun, and then back again. 

“Is there a problem?”

Kyungsoo levelled Baekhyun with a gaze. Then he smiled.

“No. Not at all,” he said, before he looked up to Jongin. He met his eyes. “Actually, I was wondering if I could go with you?”

Something shone through Jongin’s eyes, before his entire face lit up with a small smile. 

“Of course,” he sounded so delighted, and his enthusiasm was so apparent, that Kyungsoo found it hard to contain his little, awkward smile. 

“I see.” Baekhyun said. His words were curt and sharp, and when Kyungsoo looked at him he expected to see disappointment. There was none, however. Only acceptance. He threw his bag over his shoulder as Chanyeol stood by his side awkwardly. “Let’s meet again at like…four?”

“Meet us at the fountain at the main square at twilight,” Jongin said, fixing the collar of his coat. 

“Twi-…isn’t that too late?!” 

“He said he had some work to do,” Chanyeol chided from the side, and Baekhyun breathed in deeply again. He flashed one last look in Kyungsoo’s direction. Kyungsoo just nodded once. 

“Okay. Fine. Whatever,” Baekhyun ended up mumbling in defeat. “I’ll see you later.”

Kyungsoo nodded again, one last reassurance for Baekhyun, before the redhead turned around and stormed off in the opposite direction. Chanyeol wove his hand quickly in them, throwing in a belated ‘thanks for the brunch’ at Jongin, before following after Baekhyun. When he reached him, he messed up his red hair with his large hand, and even from here, Kyungsoo could hear Baekhyun’s indignant squawk. 

“They look lovely together,” Jongin’s voice resounded right next to him, and Kyungsoo threw a look towards the man. He was staring at the retreating forms of his best friends, before directing his eyes towards him. There was a soft look in them, as he smiled. 

Kyungsoo’s mouth felt dry, as he shook his head. 

“Uh, they’re not dating.”

Jongin raised his eyebrows lightly, and if Kyungsoo wasn’t imagining things, he could swear the man in front of him seemed a little taken aback. He composed himself within seconds, before straightening again. 

“They should,” he said. “They keep orbiting around one another. You hardly ever see them apart.”

_ Probably because Baekhyun thinks someone will skin him alive if he leaves Chanyeol’s side around you guys _ , Kyungsoo thought bitterly, as he tore his eyes away from the two fools skipping away in the distance. 

Instead, he willed himself to shake all that off and smile again. 

“Anyways,” Kyungsoo started. “You said you had work to do, right? Is there any way I can help?”

Jongin still seemed a little surprised by his eyes staring directly in his, but in no way unreceptive. No, quite the opposite, in fact. His smile only seemed to grow, showing that row of perfect white teeth. 

“Your company alone is more rewarding than any help I could have asked for,” he said, before raising his free hand up. He elegantly spread it out towards him, and Kyungsoo’s breath hitched. There were people around them, keeping a safe distance from Jongin, yet throwing curious glances in their direction. 

It was easy to ignore them when Kim Jongin was showing a genuine smile like this, untainted by the shadows of the dark mansion. The wind blew past and messed up his silver hair, and Kyungsoo’s breath hitched when he laid his hand in Jongin’s palm, feeling the other’s fingers sliding around his gently. The silver rings were cool against his skin when Jongin pulled on Kyungsoo’s arm and let it rest on his elbow. 

Their sides were brushing, but Jongin’s smile was equal parts dazzling and stunned, as he started leading him forward.

* * *

Jongin seemed genuinely regretful when he apologized to Kyungsoo. 

“Destiny is rather cruel, if you think about it,” Jongin said with a little sigh. “I get to spend the day with you, yet I don’t. I’m really sorry.”

“You shouldn’t be sorry,” Kyungsoo shrugged. “You did warn us that you have work to do. I’m the one who should be apologizing. I’m distracting you when you have stuff to do. Hope you’re not mad.”

“How can a man be mad when the distraction is so satisfying?”

Kyungsoo felt his face burning up yet again. He had lost count at this point. 

Jongin just had a way with words that made him feel like he was floating, while also making him want to bury himself in dirt and hide from the entire world. He was embarrassed, yet he absolutely loved it. 

“After you,” Jongin’s smile was a little lopsided as he held the door of the grocery store open. 

Kyungsoo walked in, and everybody looked up from their business to stare at him, and then, respectively, at Jongin. Upon seeing the youngest Kim brother, they all seemed to tense. Kyungsoo still did not completely get it, but after seeing it happen all around them on the way here, he also wasn’t shocked. 

“Mr-…Mr. Kim!” the old man behind the counter said, and he seemed paler than he had just moments ago. “H-how may I help you?”

“I’m here for the financial accounts for the last two months,” Jongin said with a measured tone. He sounded almost bored. Kyungsoo curiously looked up to watch him raising the briefcase and setting it on the counter. 

The old man nodded in a rush. 

“Of course, just a second.”

Jongin didn’t reply to that, and instead moved to roll the ring on his finger. His eyes were cold – or at least, devoid of any other emotion, as he followed the movements of the old man when he leaned down to rummage through the stuff below the counter. 

Kyungsoo’s eyes travelled around the store. Everybody seemed to be staring, and failing at trying to be discreet. He bit on the inside of his cheek when he turned back to Jongin. 

Their eyes met then, and Kyungsoo tensed all over again for a brief fleeting moment. Jongin’s gaze was soft, but as unreadable as always. 

And then that softness melted away to reveal that cold wall, before he turned to look at the shop owner. 

“It might have slipped your attention, but I do have company today. I’d hate to keep them waiting,” he said, and there was a sprinkle of menace in his deep voice. “Hurry it up, will you?”

“O-of course, sir!” the old man sputtered, before bringing up a large book. He slid it over the counter, his eyes avoiding Jongin’s. “I’m sorry.”

Jongin did not reply, instead opened the book and flipped through the last pages. His eyes scanned the scribbles, before he nodded absentmindedly.

He opened his briefcase and placed the notebook there, the click of the locks resounding in the supermarket where everybody was holding their breath. 

“My brother will visit next week with the complete statements,” Jongin said, and his voice was monotone again, like he had said this thousands of times, like he didn’t really care to say it. “Have a good day.”

“You too, Mr. Kim!”

And just like that, under the eyes of everybody, they left the first shop. 

Kyungsoo curiously looked at Jongin, who adjusted the briefcase in his fingers, before shooting him a warm gaze yet again. 

“Financial accounts?”

“It is my job to collect the accounts of transactions from the businesses we run in town,” Jongin hummed, as he bowed lightly when he offered Kyungsoo his hand again. He took it without much thought. “Then I bring them home, and me and my brothers make sure everything is correct with the statements. We check if there is missing money from transactions or if we owe money for production costs. It is our job to make sure all our businesses operate on a profit.”

“I…get that. But why are the account held in a…book?”

There was a confused wrinkle between his eyebrows, Kyungsoo felt it, as he threw a look towards Jongin’s briefcase. It felt kind of medieval, really. 

Then again, everything about this tiny village felt like it was stuck in time. 

“It _is_ rather inconvenient at times,” Jongin admitted with a low chuckle. “You can imagine what a hassle it is to sort through hundreds of pages with scribbles and trying to make financial reports out of them. But most of the people here are old. They don’t know any better.”

Kyungsoo hummed quietly. 

“We use computers for our ventures outside the town. In today’s day and age, it would be impossible to manage everything without technology,” Jongin continued, and Kyungsoo just pursed his lips.

“Wait, so….you have a computer?”

Jongin threw him a look. He seemed entertained. 

“_Of course_ I have a computer. I’m not a _caveman_,” Jongin smiled. “How else would I manage all our work worldwide from up on the hill?”

Kyungsoo let out a breath. 

“Sorry, it’s just-…the telephones weren’t working, and with the flood-…I don’t know.”

“You thought we were stuck in the 19th century.”

Kyungsoo winced at Jongin’s choice of words. 

“More or less.”

“More or less,” Jongin repeated, and there was amusement in his eyes and tone. Kyungsoo hoped he hadn’t offended him somehow, but Jongin was still holding his arm and still walking close to him. That, and he still had a little smile playing on his lips, when he turned to peer down at him. “I don’t like using the computer though. I use it when it is necessary, but I find spending too much time on it is _wasting_ time. It detaches us from the world, and I do believe that is a pity.”

Kyungsoo was really starting to feel like a snobby town kid in the presence of the Kims. That was a very cute sentiment. He could not imagine sitting in front of his computer only to work though. It seemed impossible. 

“I think Baekhyun would cry if he heard you just now,” Kyungsoo let out a little chuckle. “It’s hard to tear him away from his computer sometimes.”

Jongin’s hum was polite, but rather disinterested. 

They entered a second shop. 

The routing was the same. It took a total of three minutes for Jongin to collect the accounts, to scare the villagers, and then to catch his arm under his elbow and start walking down the cobbles of the old town road. 

“What about you?” Jongin asked, and Kyungsoo blinked in confusion. “You said you study architecture. I imagine that would mean working digitally. A lot.”

“Uh,” Kyungsoo drawled, throwing one quick glance towards Jongin. He seemed actually interested, and Kyungsoo felt his grip on the man’s elbow tightening. It was sweet that he had remembered his major when he had only mentioned it once, for a few brief seconds. “Yeah. You’d be surprised. I spend a lot of time on my computer.”

“Well,” Jongin’s smirk was a little smug, and there was spring in his elegant step. “You know what people say. Opposites attract.”

Kyungsoo promptly almost choked on the air he was breathing and avoided looking at Jongin for the next few minutes. Which was okay, because Jongin smiled a wider smirk at him, his teeth showing again, before he walked into yet another shop. 

The few minutes he spent in there arranging the stuff he needed, Kyungsoo took to regulate his heart. 

They visited a total of fourteen shops that day. They were walking leisurely through the town, and Jongin kept asking him questions about _him_. 

About his major, about his hobbies, about his friends and family. About his childhood. About his dreams. 

It had been a little awkward at first – Kyungsoo hated talking about himself. He was a hot mess and speaking about all of that usually made him feel like he was on a downward spiral in life. 

Speaking to Jongin, however, someone who was so utterly invested in every single word coming out of his mouth, felt different. He wasn’t just dismissing his answers and shooting another question. He would ask for details. He was _actually_ listening to him. He was _actually_ interested. 

Which seemed like a wild concept to good old Kyungsoo, who had never thought anything about his life was particularly fascinating. 

“It’s all a matter of perspective,” Jongin smiled at him when Kyungsoo voiced his wonder. “And from where I’m standing, your life sounds like a dream.”

Kyungsoo walked into the café first. 

It was easy to ignore the people parting upon the sight of Jongin. He had gotten used to it throughout the day. In fact, it felt annoying, sensing those weird glances, seeing those people hiding. It made him angry. 

“What about you,” he asked when they sat down at a remote little table in the corner of the place. He leaned closer, and Jongin followed his example. He leaned over the surface of the table, an action that seemed so mundane when Kim Jongin did it, with his exquisite poise and control over his elegant limbs. 

Kyungsoo’s breath almost hitched when Jongin’s face came closer to him. When he could see each eyelash, when he could see the strands of silver hair falling over his face. 

“What about me?”

“You promised to tell me more about your knives,” Kyungsoo whispered. He didn’t mean to whisper. He just didn’t realize that he had lost all trust in his abilities to speak. 

He backed up immediately. He straightened in his seat and forced a smile on his face. 

“I did, didn’t I?” Jongin slowly leaned back into his chair, crossing his legs, as he tapped his slender fingers on the table. His smile was small, and his eyes were deep and dark and unreadable and so focused on him, Kyungsoo almost forgot how to breathe again. “Shoot.”

“Well…why knives?” Kyungsoo asked earnestly, then shook his head. “What started your interest in that?”

Jongin didn’t even need to think twice, before replying. 

“I was about nine, I think. I went out with my brothers and my uncle. We were in the woods, and they were hunting. And see, my uncle was holding this _beautiful_ blade,” Jongin let out a chuckle and Kyungsoo blinked. He could practically see the memories playing out behind Jongin’s eyes. “He told me not to touch it while he was gone, but I was so curious. I ended up cutting myself. Accidentally, of course.”

Kyungsoo’s eyebrows shot up in slight worry, as he traces Jongin’s gaze down to his fingers where he was playing with his rings. 

“But see, I was so fascinated,” Jongin continued, and Kyungsoo looked at him again. The smile stretching his lips was sort of distant, dazed. “Something so beautiful and so intricate had inflicted pain. And the blood…it was so _red_.”

Kyungsoo could feel the smile slowly melting off his face as he straightened in his chair. 

Jongin seemed too lost in his own thoughts to see that sudden shift in his expressions, but then he moved, and his eyes landed on him. The smile that stretched his lips was wider, and it was that same smile that had made Kyungsoo’s skin crawl the first time he met the man. The terror crept like chills up his spine when Jongin smiled. 

“Do I frighten you?”

He seemed entertained when he asked the question, and Kyungsoo wondered if there was a right answer. He measured the man in front of him with a long look, his own words from earlier ringing in his head. _If they wanted to hurt us, don’t you think they have had enough opportunities to do so already?_

Truth would probably be the best answer, he figured, as he breathed in deeply. He smiled shakily. 

“Just a little,” he breathed, before shaking his head. “So…let me get this straight. You like…pain?”

“No, not quite,” Jongin hummed rather thoughtfully. “Pain _could_ be enjoyable, but it is the fact that even something small and insignificant could cause a disaster that fascinates me the most, I think.”

Kyungsoo decided to tune out the first part of the sentence for now, for his own sanity. 

“So…the knives.”

“Oh, my uncle’s knife was a hunting knife. A Bowie knife,” Jongin explained, as if that was supposed to mean something to Kyungsoo. “It looked pretty, and he handled it really well. I was curious to learn more. Not to hunt animals, but just handling the knife, I guess. He gave it to me later, as a present. It’s the first knife I got for my collection.”

Kyungsoo nodded soundlessly, at the same time the waitress brought the cake they had ordered, along with two lemonades. Jongin reached out to grab one of the little forks, toying with the frosting of the cake, as he continued speaking. 

“I taught myself how to throw them. How to _use_ them. And some of them were just…too beautiful to pass on. You saw them yourself.”

Kyungsoo nodded again and picked up the second fork. He hesitantly stuck it in the cake. 

“You said you learned how to use them. Do you reckon you’d ever _need_ those skills?”

“Who knows,” Jongin said, and Kyungsoo’s eyes shot up to him again. He almost dropped the fork, but Jongin’s smile stretched into something genuine. His eyes were shining, and then he let out a chuckle. “I’m _joking_.”

_ Oh _ .

“I see,” Kyungsoo whispered, before stuffing a piece of cake in his mouth. His heart was beating loudly against his ribcage, and he wasn’t sure if it was horror and terror, of if it was the undeniable attraction he felt whenever Kim Jongin smiled. Maybe a mix of both. “What about your books?”

“My…books?”

“You said you love reading,” Kyungsoo said hurriedly, itching to change the subject to something that he could possibly relate to. “What are your favourite books?”

“My favourite book,” Jongin repeated quietly, and for the first time, Kyungsoo saw the man looking slightly confused. He seemed unsure, as he shook his head and silver locks of hair fell over his eyes. He let out a breath then, he sounded amused. “I don’t think it would be possible to pick just one.”

Kyungsoo supposed blurting out that his favourite was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix would sound a little childish now, so he held that in. Instead, he took another piece of cake, before shrugging. 

“What about a favourite author then?”

Jongin seemed to think about it for a few seconds, his fork still just playing with the decorative rose on top of the cake. 

“Edgar Allan Poe, I think,” he ended up saying. Then he nodded, almost to himself, before continuing. “I think I end up re-reading his works the most.”

Kyungsoo quickly raked his brain for any information bits he had on the author. Modern mystery and horror. _Figures_. 

“Really,” Kyungsoo breathed. “Would have taken you for a Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy kind of guy.”

Jongin raised his eyebrows, before smiling. He finally took a piece of cake on his fork, bringing it to his lips. Kyungsoo had to look away from those pink plush lips locking around the dark chocolate rose. 

“Why Poe?” Kyungsoo asked. “He’s a poet, isn’t he?”

“Most of his works are poems, yes,” Jongin confirmed, then he shrugged. “I don’t really know. There is no particular reason. I just enjoy reading them. He can create a dark and comical world, but his views remain realistic.”

Kyungsoo’s eyes lingered on Jongin for a few long seconds – maybe longer than it was socially acceptable, but the other man was staring at him anyways, so he figured it didn’t really matter. 

And then Jongin spoke up again. He asked him about his favourite books, and Kyungsoo did blurt out his stupid answer. 

Jongin laughed quietly then, and he reached down for the cake again. He assured him that he enjoyed reading that too. 

And they just kept talking. The piece of cake between them became smaller and smaller, and the sky slowly started bathing in the red of the sun’s last golden touches. 

It felt so natural. So comfortable. Just sitting and talking to Jongin. Trying to understand how those complicated mechanisms of his beautiful mind were working behind those deep, dark eyes. Trying to keep up. 

And he was so _nice_ to him. He regarded everybody else with a cold stare and an expressionless face, but he was smiling at him. His eyes were shining when they talked. Every time his fingers brushed against his hand, Kyungsoo felt shivers all over his body. The _good_ type of shivers. The ones that made him feel like he was sixteen all over again. 

And he was so _goddamn_ handsome. With his silver hair and golden skin, his plush lips hypnotizing him when he talked, his dark eyes hiding universes and mysteries in their orbs. Kyungsoo could stare at him forever and not get bored. 

“What is wrong?”

Jongin’s question brought him out of his daze, and Kyungsoo startled when he realized how intensely he was staring. Jongin’s lips were pulled in a little smirk, like he knew _exactly_ what was wrong. 

“Sorry,” Kyungsoo said quickly, already feeling the heat rising to his cheeks. “It’s just…. I’ve never really talked to anybody this much. I tend to be a bit of a wallflower. I usually only stick around people I’ve known for ages, like Baekhyun and Chanyeol, but…. just, I don’t know. Talking to you is so…”

“Yes?”

“It’s nice,” Kyungsoo admitted. “And I’m just surprised.”

“Surprised why?”

Kyungsoo just shrugged. 

“People usually don’t want to talk to me about…. well, me.”

Jongin didn’t laugh the way he half expected him to. He didn’t press with further questions either. No. 

When Kyungsoo looked up to check his reaction, he only saw Kim Jongin peering down at him, before he leaned closer over the table. 

He did not seem in any way hesitant or uncomfortable when he spoke again. 

“I find that hard to believe,” he said, and his voice was deep and soft. “I am truly and utterly enchanted by you.”

_ Well, shit _ , Kyungsoo thought, as he leaned back in his chair and let out a breath. 

“Yeah, right.”

The words escaped him before he could even stop them, but it was just an automatic reaction. He could see Jongin’s interest, and to be frank – he could not understand it.

Why would someone as gorgeous as Jongin be interested in him of all people? His mind quickly jumped to the knives, to the mentions of pain and blood, the old graveyards. Maybe there _really_ was something wrong with him. 

Jongin’s smile remained untouched, though, and his eyes were shining brighter, if anything. 

“Words have no power to impress the mind without the exquisite horror of their reality,” he said, and Kyungsoo blinked up to him again. He felt the crease forming between his eyebrows again. 

“What?”

“It’s, uh…it’s a quote. By Edgar Allan Poe,” Jongin said, his fingers playing with his rings again. It seemed he did that every time he was thinking hard, and Kyungsoo looked up from his slender fingers to his soft looking lips. “It means that everything I said is true. I mean it. Every single word.”

Kyungsoo took a few seconds to collect his scattered thoughts and to try sorting them into a coherent picture. He failed. 

He breathed in, before he let the smile bloom on his lips. 

“So you’re hoping to impress me?”

Jongin seemed a little flustered for a fraction of a second. Mostly surprised at the sudden boldness in Kyungsoo’s question. Definitely pleased, when he smiled again. Kyungsoo almost sighed out loud. He was so _hot_. 

Jongin’s smirk was knowing and his eyebrows were slightly raised. 

“Is it working?”

To be completely fair, Kyungsoo would have probably been impressed if the guy had just asked him out to the movies. Without even quoting 18th century poets. But hey, he would take that too. 

He almost jumped out of his skin when Jongin’s fingers brushed against his on the table. He peered down to see the other’s slender fingers slowly moving around his, brushing against his skin every now and then. 

Kyungsoo looked up through his lashes, and Kim Jongin was looking at him already. His smile was fading slowly, but the look in his eyes was only becoming deeper. Kyungsoo felt like someone had kicked the air out of his lungs when he spoke again. 

“You said there’s a beautiful pond out in the forest,” he said – _whispered_, really. “Do you want to show it to me tomorrow?”

Jongin’s fingers wrapped around his then, and Kyungsoo felt the warmth of the other’s skin seeping into his own when he picked up his hand. 

He watched those plush lips pressing against his knuckles, placing a soft kiss on his skin, leaving a burning sensation that spread from that one little spot through his entire body just like wildfire. 

“It would be my pleasure,” he whispered against his skin, before setting his arm back on the table. He wasn’t letting go. 

Kyungsoo watched Jongin breathlessly, as he looked around the café. His eyes lingered on the window, at the darkening sky and the last rays disappearing behind the horizon. The sun was setting. 

Jongin turned to look at him then, and his eyes were shining, and his smile was chilling in all ways possible. He gripped his fingers tighter for a moment, as if to remind him that he still had a hold on him. 

“Let’s not keep your friends waiting.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooof, that took a hot minute. 
> 
> I just want to remind everyone this is quite slow paced, we're only on Day 3 out of presumably 7 haha I'd really love to know what you guys are thinking, so make sure you scream at me in the comments hehe
> 
> If you want to talk to me, you can follow me on  ** _ [ twitter ](https://twitter.com/jongnugget) _ **
> 
> Also I opened commissions, so if you're interested you can read more about it  ** _ [ here ](https://twitter.com/jongnugget/status/1292199820854276096) _ ** ~


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